President Joe Biden and his gun control advisors won’t like this news.
One of the most consistently accurate and reputable polling organizations found more Americans oppose one of the president’s top gun control goals than support it. Monmouth found nearly half of Americans – 49 percent – oppose a federal ban on so-called “assault weapons.”
The poll was released just days after the president once again called for a national ban on modern sporting rifles (MSRs).
It’s a Trend
“In 1994, I led the fight to successfully ban assault weapons… We know the solution. Congressional Republicans need to show some courage,” President Joe Biden tweeted last month.
The American public, though, is saying not-so-fast.
The Monmouth poll reveals Americans don’t want a ban. It’s a trend and the new data represents a nine-point drop in support for a federal ban on America’s most popular-selling centerfire semiautomatic rifle in almost a year. The new polling also represents a seven-point increase in opposition to a ban.
Earlier this year, NSSF reported polling from the Washington Post, ABC News and Quinnipiac all showed similar sentiments.
The Quinnipiac poll even showed a majority of Americans – 51 percent – opposed a ban. “While President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to renew the long-expired ban on assault weapons, the public now is divided on the question…,” that report stated.
It’s true. The president continues to call on Congress to re-enact the 1994 federal “assault weapons” ban that expired in 2004. He’s admitted he’s “powerless” and has done all he can on gun control through executive actions.
What the president doesn’t admit is that since the previous ban expired in 2004, MSR popularity has grown exponentially. Over the past few years, law-abiding Americans have purchased firearms at a blistering pace and the MSR was a popular choice – including among first-time gun owners. Since 1990, there are more than 24.4 million MSRs in circulation today, with over 4.5 million in the last three years alone.
At the same time, research revealed the expired ban didn’t produce the desired effect. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) determined the 1994 ban did not reduce crime and the impact on gun violence of renewing it would be “too small for reliable measurement.” The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report shows more intentional murders are committed by criminals using knives, fists and blunt objects than by rifles of any kind, not just MSRs like the AR-15.
Definition Confusion
Increasingly larger numbers of law-abiding Americans are learning about what an MSR is and how they operate. It’s the same semiautomatic, one-trigger-pull-one-fire technology that’s been around for more than a century. MSRs are a popular choice for hunting, recreational target shooting and self-defense because of their adaptability and ease of use, especially for women preferring an adjustable, accurate, easy-to-handle firearm with less recoil.
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers in Congress continue to be dumbfounded about the classes of firearms they want to ban. President Biden’s first nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) David Chipman, despite being a retired ATF agent and paid gun control lobbyist for Everytown for Gun Safety and Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, couldn’t define what a so-called “assault weapon” was that he supported banning when pressed by senators during his confirmation hearing.
More recently, the administration’s Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona called for “assault weapons” to be banned. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Myorkas did too and refused to define what that meant during a U.S. Senate committee hearing.
ATF Director Dettelbach was asked in previous testimony to define an “assault weapon,” but demurred. He did not offer Congress a definition. Director Dettelbach was asked again at a following U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee attempted to get the director to agree “assault weapons” should be banned based off looks but he replied that it is up to Congress to define firearm classifications. Members of Congress seeking to ban guns and firearm accessories consistently mislabel, misidentify and conflate what they are and do.
Flawed Laws Move Forward in the States
That hasn’t stopped some states from passing their own laws restricting the manufacture, sale, possession and transfer of MSRs though. Nine states have enacted bans, the two most recent being Illinois and Washington state.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law one of the nation’s most expansive gun control laws, banning the sale of hundreds of models of rifles including commonly-owned MSRs, certain semiautomatic handguns and rifle magazines with a capacity greater than 10 cartridges and pistol magazines with a capacity greater than 15 cartridges. NSSF challenged the unconstitutional ban and was victorious after a federal judge blocked the implementation of the ban while other legal challenges play out in courts.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed similar ban in his state, HB 1240, saying, “No one needs an AR-15 to protect your family. You only need it to kill other families.” NSSF quickly filed a lawsuit against Washington State Attorney General Robert Ferguson and Chief of Washington State Patrol John Batiste seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from state authorities enforcing the law.
The question over banning commonly-owned firearms could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming months. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett requested the city of Naperville, Illinois, respond to an emergency request for an injunction against the city’s own “assault weapon” ban, meaning at least one justice wants to hear more about a legal challenge there before the High Court decides whether or not to weigh in, The Reload reported.
Polls show though, the American public knows any ban would be unconstitutional and not make our communities safer, just less free.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
There was no ban. Simply found ways around all of the restrictions they implemented. Innovation.
Ban did not work with alcohol.
Ban is not working with drugs.
Highly doubt a ban will work in this case either.
FWIW- the reason there were avenues around “the AWB” is because its proponents were short-sighted enough to actually define what “assault weapons” were, and why none of them will do so today. It is not ignorance, it is more an issue of contrived, intentional arrogance.
And to define by set features which could be modified for removed for no loss in performance.
Why the hoopla over bayonet lugs? I haven’t heard of a bayonet attack since Goose Green on the Falkland Islands.
Victoria, are the kneepads supplied or are they a legitimate tax deduction for “business purposes”?
the AWB caused a cut in sales because they no longer looked like “the real thing”….which has been… and remains…a major selling point….
This. Oh, and that little old 2nd Amendment Constitutional right thingy.
“commonly owned” is going to have to get defined…just a question of time….
I always thought that “MSR” stood for “Military Style Rifle.” I think that calling the AR15 a “modern sporting rifle” is just plain silly. That being said, I too am against national, state, local bans on same. I think it’s about time for “BPB.”
“I think it’s about time for “BPB.””
Big Plump Buttocks? I agree! 🙂
“The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand
Or, so I’ve read.
My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo
I love to sink her with my pink torpedo.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN42uzNFVmQ
“Modern Sporting Rifle” or “Assault Weapon”: In the necessary battle to first control the language talking points, which would you prefer to represent these firearms today when the uneducated, general public is the target?
TTAG Shadow, the AR-15 is a sporter’s rifle. It is not a “military” or an “assault” rifle.
While this is absolutely true, it’s my opinion that the majority of people in this country are saying “It’s the economy stupid”.
Once again Jim Crow Gun Control democRat joe…The only firearm on earth you need to be concerned about is the firearm your son hunter lied on a 4473 to purchase. And to add insult to injury your son hunter and your deceased son’s wife tossed said firearm in a dumpster located close to a school. C’Mon Maaan.
But………They are the Bidens, the elite. They live under a different set of rules than us normal everyday working class people.
That they do.
Biden honestly thinks it isn’t coming from the American people anywhere near as much as it’s coming from the MAGA Republicans. In his mind, the American people actually ‘want’ gun control. For him, it’s more about right wing extremism from state governors.
Biden has no clue what the people of this country truly want. Nor does he care.
“In his (Biden’s) mind, the American people actually ‘want’ gun control.”
Seriously- do you think he, or Shumer, Bloomberg, Giffords or the rest even consider that supposition as being relevant?
Seriously?
Relevant? Not really. But that is another thing.
We should do what he says do without question or hesitation. As if he were king.
… ” in his (Biden’s) mind “… he hears rustling leaves from his youth. Jill and the other handlers tell him what it means.
Just as I believe my father did, in about year four of his Alzheimer’s Bus Tour, with no planned stops and limited breaks for ice cream 🍦.
Sorry Pb,
Jokes aside Alzheimer’s is horrible. God Bless.
he doesn’t have one. he’s fake. this guy is the one Odumbo talked about his third term wing man would have an earpiece while the Kenyan spoke to him from his basement.
Well, that is true for every politician……
” In 1994 I implemented a ban on Doberman Pinschers if they were wearing leather collars and had all eighteen of their nails intact. The Republicans ended that ban, and as a result the same species is responsible for over two attacks in the time they’ve been unregulated. Shame on you !! ”
FJB
In our efforts to affect polling numbers, and in an effort to affect the opinions of the nation’s law makers, enforcers and administrators, we, the owners and operators of the equipment in question should seek to educate the general public and voters by taking them to ranges and other places where shooting is permitted and allow them to see for themselves if these firearms are as dangerous to the general public as they are repeatedly being presented. Particularly women (whether you can define them or not) and younger, future voters.
I’ve been on such a mission now for years and have yet to introduce people, even avowed, educated progressives, to shooting who haven’t had a blast, so to speak, and who have now joined the ranks of “gun owners”. A fair numbers now are carrying for their own defense, an act they wouldn’t have even considered 4 or 5 years ago.
We are the best ambassadors to the Second Amendment, and through that, the entire US Constitution. Claiming to believe, and exercise in these rights is not even half of our duties- to actually pass it on is essential if we truly feel the rights and liberties enshrined in our founding documents are worthy for our nation’s future generations.
“I’ve been on such a mission now for years and have yet to introduce people, even avowed, educated progressives, to shooting who haven’t had a blast, so to speak, and who have now joined the ranks of “gun owners”.”
THAT, right there, is what they are afraid of.
They are terrified people will like guns, so they have to demonize them as much as possible. It’s why they speak of them as if they are a disease they could catch if they ever touch one.
Because, if guns ever get universally popular, they will never be able to get rid of them.
And that means, when they finally make their final lunge for complete power, they cannot allow ‘the people’ to have such things.
So they demonize them, make them the cause of everything that’s wrong. They must do to guns what the Germans did to the Jewish people, *exterminate* them… 🙁
We had a realty agent in Florida when selling our beachfront condo in 2014, she was a rabid “anti-modern sporting rifle”-type, she said as much after seeing my black stocked SKS sitting in the corner of the living room (to “them” everything “black” is an AR15 or so-called “assault rifle”). After taking the requisite photos and getting info on the unit we were putting up for sale just as she was about to leave I drew her attention (I had been waiting for that moment) to the SKS and said “funny you’ve been here for about an hour and that (pointing to the rifle) hasn’t killed anyone”. I nearly made her cry, the look on her face was priceless.
There are those that live and die by the polls.
some people…a considerable number, actually…harbor a visceral hatred of guns…just a fact of life…and debate on this issue is difficult if not impossible with someone with that mindset
Let’s institute a national ban on marxists in this country. Turn ’em all in to be destroyed. This ban would reduce crime and make us all safer. What do y’all think ?
Interesting idea but no more Constitutional than grabbing the guns in contravention of the Bill Of Rights.
Interesting because Monmouth and Quinnipiac tend to be left leaning polls with far more Democrat than Republican respondents. The more accurate Rasmussen poll is generally i agreement with these two college polls. An obvious trend in our favor.
Not this time:
“That sample included 25% Republicans, 30% Democrats, and 45% independents.”
The only ban was to stop manufacturing for retail sales. All existing and owned could be sold or traded. That is when “component” sales went thru the roof.
“All existing and owned could be sold or traded.”
Not in some areas. Those places, you could keep what you had, (only after registration, of course!), but upon your death, must be turned in for destruction.
That way, they could say without directly lying, “Nobody will take your guns!.” 🙁
Before I die I’ll give them away to friends who appreciate my firearms.
This survey ain’t the slam-dunk that some think it is.
Monmouth found nearly half of Americans – 49 percent – oppose a federal ban on so-called “assault weapons.”
And 43% support a ban. That’s a difference of 6 percentage points. BUT:
Monmouth University Poll polled 805 U.S. adults March 16-20, and the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points. That sample included 25% Republicans, 30% Democrats, and 45% independents.
We’re a divided country.
Indeed we are a DEEPLY divided country, with little room for compromise. The intent of the Left is to disarm The People, render the country ungovernable, and ultimately destroy it as a world power.
The leftists and Dementiacrats, and yes I know, one and the same, don’t realize they and their policies are the best salespeople the firearms industry has ever had. Every time they start pushing the disarmament agenda sales of whatever they want banned goes up. Same thing happens when their failed policies put average American Citizens in danger or at risk of violent crimes.
Something the idiots don’t seem to comprehend is the simple fact that criminals don’t, by the very definition of the word, obey the laws they enact. How well did Prohibition work on alcohol or narcotics?
The reason the disarmament crowd can’t or won’t define what an assault weapon is, is because they want the definition as vague as possible to add to the list at a later date to include anything they find distasteful or possibly useful in resisting the destruction of our Constitutional Republic and the dismantling of our civil rights.
What’s that, F O and D?
“Americans Are Increasingly Saying Something That Joe Biden Doesn’t Want to Hear”
Something along the lines of…
Fuck You You Brain Dead Dementia Addled Grifter!
Amen brother Muck, Amen!
Americans are increasingly saying something Joe Biden doesn’t want to here.
” Put Down The Candy and Step Away From The Children !”
,,,,,HEAR…
I did pass 8th grade so shut up
Hear hear!
I don’t want Joe near me. I don’t want him to hear me! I don’t want Joe to smell me! I don’t want Joe to sniff my hair. I don’t want Joe anywhere!
… ” I did pass 8th grade, so shut up ”
Well, yeah, but how many years did it take to do it ??
I’m betting no more than one. Any marsupial with that sense of humor can’t have had any trouble with the 8th Grade.
the democrats are doing this
because theyre now operating from the standpoint of:
“who cares what a majority of voters think
just as long as we can:
1 keep stealing the elections in 5 swing states every election cycle and
2 continue to convince the useful idiots that were not and
3 continue to run roughshod over the 1st 2nd and 10th amendments just to name a few
we can do and say as we please
and still remain in power at least at the federal level
which right now means almost everything”
Define an assualt weapon?
The Right to Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed( except for the weapons a tyrannical government does not approve).
That part got left out because Thomas Jefferson sneezed and the snot blurred the undried ink.
Boy howdy, that kinda talk is going to really bite me in the ass when Our Great and most Benevolent leader of the Free World, President Joseph Robinett Biden does another 4 years, maybe 4, we will have to see. He might change the term limits to life if your a Democrat.
Freedom
It will be for democracy so it will be ok
James Madison.
I was wondering today if AWB compliant crap will have a nostalgic resurgence of sorts. People always gravitate back to the garbage they remember from their youth at some point in their lives with rose-colored glasses. Another craze like zombies, tactical-everything, distressing and peanut butter paint.
Perhaps since some states still oppress their people with these asinine laws any nostalgic appeal will be overshadowed by the desire to never go back.
Somehow I do not see NY compliant items ever being a collectors item or nostalgia piece unless it was one of the .5% of eligible firearms that actually got registered as an assault weapon and is due for destruction on account of it’s registered owner being dead and it made it out of state. In which case it is still a normal setup just with some nonsensical history.
rarely see any of those for sale…gun buffs hated those things….
They are simultaneously not as bad as people say and far worse than anything available. As in they function well enough to be useful but are more expensive than normal options and often out of stock.
This is why senile old fools should be retired from politics. Joe learned “assault weapons” and “gun bans” 30 years ago, while blaming all the crime on drug crazed ultimate predators (meaning young black men). Joe is stuck in the ’90s when Democrats had the power to do anything they wanted. Joe can’t understand that America has rejected him, the 90s, and gun control.
Paul:
“Joe can’t understand that America has rejected him, the 90s, and gun control.”
Duh. They haven’t: they rejected Trump. But, hopefully, his turn is coming up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsQqlj39cOQ
Dementia Joe couldn’t tweet if his life depended on it. It’s done by one of his leftist flunkies.
Dementia Joe, for some reason that really made me laugh.
I’m thinking back when the media made fun of Bush’s “Look at the Kitty”.
Reagan’s jelly beans.
Not much was said about Clitons choice of wemon.
At least JFK had Monroe.
Lyndon liked to torture his dog but the media remained silent, more or less.( for a bday present I got a beagle, named it Ladybug.)
anything said by the media I take as propaganda.
some people…a considerable number, actually…harbor a visceral hatred of guns…just a fact of life…and debate on this issue is difficult if not impossible with someone with that mindset
rarely see any of those for sale…gun buffs hated those things….
I suspect the pro-2nd Amedment numbers are much higher maybe by 15-20+ percentage points leaving only the diehard 33% Democrats in favor of increased gun-control.
If anyone should know anything about Monmouth Univ. polling it’s that it’s polls are skewed to “the Left” and heavily weighted, they target certain zip codes to get their desired results and the professor, an Anti-Trump Bolshevik member of one of the “12-tribes” is a frequent guest, the “go-to” guy whom appears on MSNBC. I have been polled by Monmouth Univ and can attest their questions are loaded, worded in order to achieve the result they require to please their MSNBC/DNC masters.
Larry Keane speaks not for gun-owners and no more says what Americans want than Bozo the Clown.
At least Joe Biden has the excuse of being a hack politician and an ancient pickled brain-dead idiot who really has no idea where he is anymore or how he got there.
What does Redflag Larry use to excuse his horse-trading with our God-given rights in the name of expanding the power amd control of his guild which he thinks it knows better what is best for it’s consumers than themselves?
From my cold dead hand!
BOLSHEVIKS (Communists) are NOT dumfounded . . . These Treasonistic TRAITORS know EXACLY what they are DOING.
I know a few Democrats, we stay friendly by avoiding political discussions altogether.
What really piqued my curiosity, is how many have approached me asking for advice or help with purchasing a Firearm, in the last 3 years. A few, were so vehemently Anit-Gun, it was shocking to hear them change their tune, and hard not to gloat. The increase in violent crime is typically the reason I hear for the change of heart. I’d point out their hypocrisy, but in true Democrat fashion, I think they’re incapable of making that connection.
One thing they’ve all expressed, is across the board they all have Buyer’s Remorse about Biden and Harris.
Not only do gun owners support our gun rights, we also vote against politicians who oppose them
I see no President in Office, only a useful Squatter placed there by the Elites. Any laws/ executive orders coming from this squatter are invalid.
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