Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Our civil liberties such as gun rights aren’t matters for polling. However, we also have to deal with a whole pile of people who seem to think our rights are up for grabs, so there will be polling on the matter.
Unfortunately, polls show us just how little our fellow countrymen value rights that they, personally, don’t use. We’ve seen numerous polls showing just how popular gun control is.
Now, there’s another one.
A majority of voters support stricter gun laws in the U.S., a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds.
Fifty-seven percent of registered voters in the March 24-26 survey said there should be more laws regulating guns in the country.
By contrast, 13 percent of respondents said there should be less laws while 30 percent said the laws regulating guns should remain the same.
Seventy-nine percent of Democrats and 55 percent of independents support stricter gun measures while 44 percent of Republicans said the laws on guns should stay the same.
So, it’s clear. Americans want more gun control.
Or do they?
See, I have a problem with polls like this because they fail to account for how knowledgeable respondents are about current gun laws. This needs to be considered because so many people believe that we have very few gun control laws thanks to an alarmist media that constantly ignores the reality on the ground in an attempt to scare people to support a given narrative.
Take, for example, background checks.
We see a lot of polling about how the public supports background checks on firearm purchases, but then you talk to people and they’re shocked that people already do undergo background checks when they buy guns from licensed dealers. They’re absolutely floored to find out those same dealers conduct background checks at gun shows. They didn’t believe that even happened, what with all the talk about “gun show loopholes.”
The number of otherwise legal firearm transfers that take place without a background check fairly small. Further, we know that criminals don’t use these transfers nearly as much as the media would like for you to believe. Instead, they buy off the black market, which isn’t going to implement background checks no matter what laws get passed.
Basically, people are clueless about what gun control laws are already in place, so them thinking we need more gun laws doesn’t really reflect much of anything.
Further, most of those people are unaware of just how little gun control actually accomplishes. Would they feel the same way if they understood, for example, that the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban produced zero positives?
Hell, there are people out there who still think the AR-15 and the M-16 are the same rifle and will argue vehemently against anyone who tries to point out the difference.
Yet these are also the people who are polled. Do they really think we need more gun laws, or do they think we don’t have any? That’s the question that really needs to be asked, but the pollsters are unlikely to ask. I suspect the gun control crowd wouldn’t like the results, though.