Poll Indicates Support for “Gun Control” on Decline

United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- It’d be hard for most people, after the events of the last few years, to say that more so-called “gun control” laws are exactly what we need in the United States. A brief fillet of some of the best of the best that we’ve been provided includes the abysmal failure of the defunding police movement, mostly peaceful protests, and draconian lockdown of the population due to the pandemic, including the resultant crime from the inept decisions of some policymakers. This slight tapas to nibble at would by simple deductive reasoning loudly state that more freedom limiting laws in the way of “gun control” is not a good idea. In the wake of the recent Brooklyn subway shooting, Rasmussen conducted a poll on what kind of support there is for measures that’ll quash civil liberties. A trend that we’ve noted is continuing…

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters don’t think stricter gun control laws would help prevent shootings like the one Tuesday that left 29 people injured in Brooklyn. Thirty-eight percent (38%) think stricter gun control laws would help prevent mass shootings, while another 11% are not sure. These findings are virtually identical to a March 2021 survey, when President Joe Biden called for new gun control measures in the aftermath of two mass shootings. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Overall, 43% of voters believe the United States needs stricter gun control laws, while 50% disagree.

This is a trend that’s likely to continue given the atmosphere in the country. People are waking to the fact that we truly are responsible for our own self-defense and that the police are not able to be everywhere. The violence perpetrated on a New York subway points to the failures of New York’s policy in not allowing normal everyday citizens to be armed. Would it have been a foregone conclusion that the domestic terror attack would have not occurred or stopped sooner had there been armed citizens in the area? No. However, it’s also not out of the question. The dynamic being discussed here is nothing new, even from justices themselves during the arguments of NYSRPA v. Bruen. Alito had the following to say:

None of these people has a criminal record. They’re all law-abiding citizens. They get off work around midnight, maybe even after midnight. They have to commute home by subway, maybe by bus. When they arrive at the subway station or the bus stop, they have to walk some distance through a high-crime area, and they apply for a license, and they say: Look, nobody has told — has said I am going to mug you next Thursday. However, there have been a lot of muggings in this area, and I am scared to death. They do not get licenses, is that right?

Further on in the parley between Underwood (in defense of NY’s unconstitutional law) and Alito, Alito asserted:

But the people — all — all these people with illegal guns, they’re on the subway…– they’re walking around the streets, but the ordinary hard-working, law-abiding people I mentioned, no, they can’t be armed?

Alito’s statements point at some of the core to the pro-freedom arguments. Only the law-abiding get punished by non-permissive laws. Those laws probably have an effect on the public’s perception. As it stands today, the public does not think such shootings can be prevented, with the report noting:

Fifty-nine percent (59%) think it is not possible to completely prevent mass shootings like the one in Brooklyn, while just 22% believe it is possible to prevent such shootings. Another 19% are not sure.

What the opinion of the public at large might be should permitting standards to be forced into a shall-issue dynamic post an opinion in NYSRPA, we can’t say for sure. However, in a post NYSRPA world, should it allow, having more armed persons in these areas very well could be the missing piece to not only changing the opinions of those polled but also the reality in the way of the number of events halted.

Alan Gottlieb, the Chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms had plenty to say about this in a recent statement.

“It is significant that Rasmussen pollsters also learned that 59 percent think it’s not possible to prevent the kinds of shooting incidents like what happened in Brooklyn…This is why we have always supported expanded concealed carry by law-abiding private citizens. If history has taught us anything, it’s that violent crime does not happen on a prearranged schedule, and criminals or madmen do not call ahead to warn their victims…Clearly, the majority of Americans don’t think adding restrictions on the rights of honest citizens is going to make a difference to people who are determined to commit mayhem. That has never been the case, and never will be, regardless what kind of extremist solutions are proposed by the gun prohibition crowd.”

Gottlieb is right in what he said about the situation. In fact, this line of thinking and ideology is exactly what could mitigate events like the Brooklyn shooting from unfolding.

Who all was involved in the poll? Rasmussen noted the following about the number of participants and when the poll was conducted:

The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on April 12-13, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

And, these are the questions they presented:

1. Does the United States need stricter gun control laws?
2. Would stricter gun control laws help prevent shootings like the recent one in Brooklyn, New York
3. Is it possible to completely prevent mass shootings like the one in Brooklyn?

50% of the country now has a permitless carry scheme in regards to policies on the bearing of arms. There are 8 holdout states that use a “may-issue” scheme. With June, the month that pundits speculate we’ll receive an opinion on NYSRPA, rapidly approaching, we very well may see a giant tidal shift in opinion later this year. My speculation is that the opinion shift will be on the side of embracing more pro-freedom measures and over-restrictive ones. But we’ll just have to wait and see.

“What happened in that Brooklyn subway was unconscionable, and if the suspect is found guilty, he should face the harshest punishment. But as the Rasmussen survey shows, most Americans don’t think it should result in stricter gun control laws that penalize honest gun owners for a crime they clearly did not commit.” – Alan Gottlieb 

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About John Petrolino

John Petrolino is a US Merchant Marine Officer, writer, author of Decoding Firearms: An Easy to Read Guide on General Gun Safety & Use and NRA certified pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructor living under and working to change New Jersey’s draconian and unconstitutional gun laws. You can find him on the web at www.johnpetrolino.com on twitter at @johnpetrolino, facebook at @thepenpatriot and on instagram @jpetrolinoiii .