American Attitudes About Guns Have Become Much More Positive, But Why? the headline at huffingtonpost.com asks. Rather than turning to someone who knows the truth about guns, the HuffPo let longtime TTAG punching bag Mike “The Gun Guy” Weisser have a go at putting the pro-gun numbers into the proper progressive perspective.

After admitting a dramatic shift towards the pro-gun rights position, Mike has this to say about declining support for gun control:

It would be easy to put this shift down to one of two arguments: 1) the country is becoming more conservative; 2) the NRA is doing a great PR job about guns. Unfortunately, both arguments can easily be shot through (pardon the pun) with holes.

The country is becoming so much more conservative over the time-period covered by these surveys that abortion is law of the land, ditto gay marriage even in the most pro-gun states. As for the vaunted NRA noise machine, the percentage of Gallup respondents who always agree with the NRA on gun issues has stayed exactly the same from 1996 to 2012 – a whole, big 6 percent.

Citation/link? Fuhgeddaboutit! 

Interesting that Mike TGG can’t think of any other reasons that Americans are embracing their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. And turning their back on unconstitutional gun control legislation.

I suspect willful ignorance. Or a failure of will. But wait, there’s more. Here’s his conclusion:

Most people are a lot more afraid of things they believe guns can be used to protect them against – crime, terrorism, danger in a generic sense – I don’t know anyone who can’t tell me exactly where they were and what they were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001.

And as long as we continue to believe that the world has become a more dangerous place, simply giving folks the results of a gun survey won’t persuade them to agree with what the survey says.

Huh? I think Mr. Weisser is saying that telling people that most Americans support gun rights won’t make them support gun control. As Fats Domino sang, as I repeat ironically, ain’t that a shame.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

79 COMMENTS

  1. People increasingly want the things that finger-waggling nitwits tell them they can’t have?

    Imagine that.

    • That goes along with ‘teaching kids about guns takes away the mystery and the need to explore the unknown. My brother and I were introduced to guns very early in our lives. We were taught properly. Never did we get into my grandfathers collection of guns whether they were put away (before gun safes) or left out for cleaning while he took a leak. We had an interest in guns, but not so great that we had to have them in our hands all the time. That was reserved for the range on the weekends.

      • Indeed it’s quite incredible that this guy still has a viable business. Any self-respecting person who lives by this idiot should make it their mission to inform local patrons of this turncoat cognizant of wha he is doing.

      • Thanks for the links and everybody can do their part in informing potential customers about MTGG.

    • Every time the gun control movement makes a organized effort to influence gun policies, the result is the same: the NRA’s membership lists expand exponentially and people’s attitudes about gun ownership and use become more positive. Still the progressive gun-controlers keep trying. You could make the argument that if the NRA and the movement to protect 2nd amendment rights didn’t have the gun-control movement, they’d need to go out and hire one.

      • Plus there’s the fact that the progressive establishment can no longer make the pro-gun, pro-rights perspective disappear. Peaceful, sane, and decent gun owners may not feature in the official news narratives, but they’re in everyone’s Facebook and Twitter feeds and all over the internet. Thank whatever deity you worship for the rise of the internet (which, by the way, is the only large-scale free-market system in the world right now…but probably not for much longer).

  2. At least Hillary is honest about her desire to grab guns. Puts her ahead of this “person”

    • “At least Hillary is honest about her desire to grab guns.”

      The Democrats are going through some ugly soul-searching (Well, as soul-searching one can get for someone without a soul) as to why they aren’t connecting with the deplorable bitter-clingers.

      The other day the Dem leadership unveiled their New! Improved! (Tastes great! Less filling!) slogan to woo them back.

      ‘A Better Deal’. Yeah, that’s all they got. They did a poll recently where they got some sad results.

      Only 38 percent believed the Democrat party actually stands for anything, and over 50 percent of them believe they *only* stand for ‘Against Trump’.

      They are furiously trying to find the right way to sell their ‘message’, while not realizing it’s their MESSAGE itself that’s the problem.

      You just don’t insult, mock, and belittle those you want to vote for you.

      This article is a fascinating dissection on how the left threw the working class under the bus, and then cheered wildly at their new party ‘purity’.

      “As Soros plowed more money into the left, its escalating radicalism alienated more of the country. Each “avalanche” was a reaction to the abuses of his radicals. It wasn’t Trump or Cruz who suffered the consequences. It wasn’t even his own leftists. Rather it was the conservative and eventually the moderate wings of the Democrat party who were swept away by his left-wing avalanches.

      The left did not mourn the mass destruction of the moderates. Instead it celebrated the growing purity of the Democrats as a movement of the hard left. It did not notice or care that it was no longer a political force outside a limited number of cities. It anticipated that voters would have no choice but to choose it over the “extremist” Republicans. It proved to be very, very wrong.”

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-01/how-george-soros-destroyed-democratic-party

      • Gun control will only be an issue so long as soros and kapo bloomberg throw money at it. shannon, mike tgg, are just in it for the pay check.

        We are watching a hundred years of leftists plots and plans collapse like a house of cards.

      • Geoff, the problem with that article is that under Obama the Democratic Party wasn’t anything near being left, let alone far left. They used a conservative concept for a health-care plan, escalated the use of drones, clamped down on immigration, reduced the deficit… Obama was a centrist, and by endorsing a plan that fed government money to insurance companies through the ploy of helping people have medical coverage revealed himself as a corporatist centrist.

        And that reveals what Soros really is: he isn’t interested so much in right or left, he wants a world where people like him own the politicians and own the government, a new feudalism with himself one of the lords and masters.

        • “a conservative concept for a health-care plan”

          I don’t think so. That would not be called “Osamacare”, it would be called the “free market system”. And if he cut the deficit, how did the national debt double, to 20 trillion, during his 8 years? I think you’ve been drinking the Kool-aide!

        • In politics, of course, opinion rules.
          But Obama wasn’t a centrist.
          “Obama was a centrist, and by endorsing a plan that fed government money to insurance companies through the ploy of helping people have medical coverage revealed himself as a corporatist centrist.”
          Hardly. He knew full well that the ACA wasn’t as you describe at all. It was designed to fail, and lead us to single-payer health insurance. The lies told, and the bribes given to legislators, demonstrate that very well.
          On immigration, yes he did deport a lot. Of course, a lot came in while he was president, so he could afford to. But also remember his actions (after he said he couldn’t) to throw more money at illegal aliens, and direct the DOJ to illegally ignore immigration laws.
          Obama was a deft speaker, and a decent street magician; he used deception and misdirection to fool the easily fooled into believing he was anything other than what he really was.
          He evidently fooled you.

        • >Obama was a centrist

          Umm… what? Obama is a statist, he doesn’t actually care about policy except for how it can give he and his power over you and yours. Same applies to Soros.

          And how exactly is Obamacare a “conservative” health plan? Just because it isn’t single payer and the spineless GOP won’t get rid of it doesn’t make it conservative at all. A free market would be “conservative.”

          “Centrist” is rapidly becoming the new term for “any Leftist not willing to admit they’re a Marxist.” To everyone else that hasn’t chugged the kool-aid, avoid letting the Leftists steal that word too. They’re trying to take control of the language in the same way they’ve taken “common-sense” and “reasonable,” and we all know how well that’s turned out for people in CA, NY, MD, MA etc..

        • Under Obama the Democratic Party wasn’t anything near being left, let alone far left…..< if you believe this you have problems
          Obama was a centrist…..< Is that the new dog whistle for Marxist scumbag?

  3. Ummm…. Unless we can start buying guns through the mail again, the country is a lot less gun friendly than it used to be. America isn’t turning pro gun, Americans, for the most part, have all been pro gun. We are just starting to finally roll back a little of the garbage that’s been forced on us the last 50 years or so.

  4. Maybe Americans are waking up to the fact that gun control advocates are extraordinarily dishonest.

    • I’m convinced it’s a large factor.

      That HuffPo even published that article is a bit surprising to me…

  5. “simply giving folks the results of a gun survey won’t persuade them to agree with what the survey says.” – Translation – No matter how much data shows broad support for gun rights, I won’t believe it.

    BUT, even the most spurious survey showing support for whatever gun restriction is currently fashionable should be sufficient basis for everyone to accept legislation.

    • “simply giving folks the results of a gun survey won’t persuade them to agree with what the survey says.”

      It is a well accepted and long established fact that 84.7% of quoted statistics were made up on the spot.

  6. Meh…a pathetic “face” of gun control. His screed is lame even by HuffPoo standards. Tell me how safe I am on the highways with lunatics driving 100mph.,around July 4th when literally 1000’s of guns are fired or when I travel through Chicago in business (less than I used to!).

  7. Personally, I’ve thought a politician running on the platform of “I will strip you of your civil rights if you will only vote for me.” is a weird sell.

    • Exactly right. You don’t mock, belittle, and insult the people you want to vote for you.

      The good news is, the Left’s leadership has no plans to alter the course or change their message.

      That’s gonna cost them big time.

      Speaking of getting what they deserve, remember that special counsel investigating Trump for Russian collusion?

      The Republicans are calling for a special counsel of their own, to investigate Democrat collusion.

      Hillary for prison just might happen:

      “Allegations that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch instructed then-FBI Director James Comey to downplay the nature of the Clinton email probe

      The FBI and DOJ’s decisions in the course of the email probe, including controversial immunity deals with Clinton aide Cheryl Mills and others

      The State Department’s involvement in deciding which Clinton emails to make public

      Disclosures in WikiLeaks-released emails regarding the Clinton Foundation and, according to the letter, “its potentially unlawful international dealings”

      Connections between Clinton officials and “foreign entities” including Russia and Ukraine

      Revelations in hacked Democratic National Committee emails about “inappropriate” coordination between the DNC and Clinton campaign against Bernie Sanders’ Democratic primary campaign

      The “unmasking” of Americans in intelligence documents and potentially related leaks of classified information

      Comey’s admitted leak of details of his conversations with President Trump

      The FBI’s “reliance” on controversial firm Fusion GPS, which was involved in the questionable anti-Trump “dossier”

      “Our call for a special counsel is not made lightly,” the lawmakers wrote. “We have no interest in engendering more bad feelings and less confidence in the process or governmental institutions by the American people. Rather, our call is made on their behalf. It is meant to determine whether the criminal prosecution of any individual is warranted based on the solemn obligation to follow the facts wherever they lead and applying the law to those facts.”

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-29/republicans-move-establish-second-special-counsel-investigate-hillary-clinton-susan-

    • Now if only the GOP will recognize that the concept also applies to inserting your own views into a woman’s ability to decide what happens within her own body, maybe we can finally get somewhere. Let’s have a party which supports personal freedom, over government control of every facet of our lives.

      • What would be the point of a political “party” then? The only purpose of non-voluntary electoral politics is for some people to control the lives and property of other people. The only way to do that is with force, fraud and lies.

        Let’s figure out a way to spread individual liberty, personal responsibility and self government/self control. Those who do not want to be bothered with any of that will be held responsible personally, by those who do. Self ownership cannot be delegated to other people. Tyranny is the inevitable result of every attempt to do so. 🙂 And, BTW, if you hire an armed guard you are merely delegating some functions, not the responsibility.

      • How about we allow a “person with their own body” to have a chance to live versus someone else (with court forced decisions and government funds) deciding that persons fate. Life is the first freedom.

  8. Sept.11,2001? Not far from Englishtown Raceway in NJ checking soils at a golf course construction site. Mom called on the phone with a odd call about a plane crash in NYC. By the time I drove to job inspection #2; WW3 had started and the world has been f***Ed up since.

  9. I know exactly where I was and what I was doing the morning of 9/11. Exactly, but it’s personal.

  10. The country is becoming so much more conservative over the time-period covered by these surveys that abortion is law of the land, ditto gay marriage even in the most pro-gun states.

    He’s using those as examples of the country not becoming more conservative, and in a way, he’s not wrong. I believe that more and more of the country is becoming balanced in their views, even if its only in the privacy of their own minds. I have a friend that likes to describe himself as “socially liberal and fiscally conservative.” I think that reflects the views of a great many people, even if they don’t broadcast it. They simply live it. That reflects what the author wrote above. Take care of your own shit (pro-freedom, pro-capitalist, pro-gun) and stay out of other people’s (behaving indifferently toward abortion, gay marriage, etc.).

    Example: Your typical “conservative” Southern Baptist, by-God and by-guns, is probably “against” gay marriage. A couple decades ago they may have protested or voted against it. It was “unnatural” or evidence of the “degradation of civilization” or somesuch.

    But now one of their kids is gay, or at least a niece or a nephew, and a coworker, and that nice guy/girl that came to the last block party. Now, while they still may not agree with it, or really want it “in your face,” they’re sociable about it, because they’ve come to realize it doesn’t actually hurt them, and they’ve got their own stuff to worry about.

    So, when it comes up for a vote, maybe this time they don’t vote against it like they have in the past. They still can’t come around to vote FOR it, but maybe they just abstain, and let it happen. Other people are further along the path, and actually vote in favor of allowing their fellow humans that bit of humanity. Next thing you know, it’s the “law of the land,” as the author says. And life moves on.

    A little rambling, but you see the sense?

    • That sounds more like Libertarianism than Conservatism, but political labels in our society seem very imprecise.

      • I agree. The author tries to disprove the statement that the country is becoming more conservative, but I don’t see anyone making that claim, aside from staunch conservatives seeking to shore up their position. The country is conservative on the issue of guns, has been for a long time, and the trend seems to be an increase. The opposite can be said for the other issues he spoke of, where the trend is more to the liberal side of things.

        So he’s right, but not in the way he thinks. The country is not becoming more conservative, it’s becoming more in line with the libertarian mindset, which can be summed up as “You do you.”

    • I would agree with your sentiment. Twenty years ago I had my opinions on certain issue and now I don’t give a damn because it’s none of my business what two consenting adults do. At the same time I have learned the value of a dollar and a balanced budget and moved further to the right on other issues such as the Second Amendment and government intrusion into our everyday lives. I want to be left alone and I am happy to extend the same curtesy to everyone else.

      And, for what it is worth, I made a similar statement to a co-worker and friend Friday when I stated I was socially middle-of-the-road and a fiscal conservative.

      • Millennials are more conservative than Gen-Xers and Baby-Boomers were at the same age.

    • that’s a bingo.
      my kids are a generation mellower as i am to my hard nosed wuppertaler of an old man. they spot the nonsense better than i do, and give extra consideration to the few points that i won’t budge on.

    • Except they did vote against it even out here in Kalifornia. Then the left does what they do every time they lose a vote, they ignore it.

  11. Personally I’m of the opinion that most people just want to be left alone. Nosey, overburdening government has finally gotten to the point that it’s obvious an obnoxious.

    On top of that, when the government “responds” to a “crisis” or even just a mugging they generally don’t do a very good job which makes people figure maybe they could do better on their own.

    People see guns as a sign of personal freedom from such meddling and incompetence and naturally gravitate towards such an object.

  12. Because of the internet you can’t hide information from people. That’s why Hillary lost and why liberty is growing.

  13. When you look at HOW abortion and gay marriage got to be “the law of the land”, should it be a surprise that more people are becoming pro-gun?

  16. Gay marriage is not the law of the land because a majority of people necessarily support the concept, but because 5 Supreme Court justices do and found such a right buried in the language of the constitution. Likewise with abortion, although it was 7 justices in Roe V. Wade. I would agree that the US population is generally more accepting of both abortion and gay marriage than it was 20 – 30 years ago. However, considering the mechanism involved in making both activities “the law of the land”, I don’t think that is necessarily indicative of a significant shift of the general population to the progressive left as Mike seems to be saying.
    .

    • In other words, to use a couple of SCOTUS cases (one of them 44 years old) to determine what direction the political winds are blowing today is foolish.

    • It is even more narrow than that. Gay marriage is the law of the land because justice Kenedy wanted it to be.

      As an example of how “progressive” even the lefty state of California is, remember that in 2008 California passed into law Prop 8 which changed the state constitution to provide that marriage is between a man and a woman. Once It became state law it was challenged and the “Governator” Arnold refused to defend the law and those who wrote and funded the process were ruled as not having standing since it was now state law so the law was declared unconstitutional essentially by default.

      Often enough laws are set quite literally by just 1 or 2 people and hardly reflect broad public support.

      • But,….but,.,,shouldn’t abortion be illegal because it deprives a fetus of it’s right to determine it’s own gender preferences? Or should abortion be legal because because everyone has the right to kill as long as killing does not involve a firearm? Or, or…,ah, screw it!

      • Judges have zero authority to legislate.
        Legislating from the bench is unconstitutional and seditious.

        • “Judges have zero authority to legislate.
          Legislating from the bench is unconstitutional and seditious.”

          And yet…

    • +1 Also as time goes on more and more people will see how unnatural and unattractive the sham of gay marriage is. The rising sentiment will simply confirm what traditional religion and culture has always taught. Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. Society today might accept it due to the brainwashed children coming out of government schools but the truth will eventually be made clear. It will require a generation of broken families to make that truth clear. To sad for the USA.

      • High rate of broken heterosexual marriages doesn’t seem to make them any less acceptable to society

        • A high rate of broken marriages between a man and a woman does not mean it is right. No fault divorce played a huge role in what we see today. Just saying.

    • Judges have zero authority to legislate.
      Legislating from the bench is unconstitutional and seditious.

  17. Thankfully the Democrats seem to have no clue that they are standing in a hole, they just keep busily digging away, all the while muttering about how they are gonna bury Trump. It may take a year or so till we get what we want, but it will happen, and when it does we will hear the donkeys bray about blood in the streets yet again. People have stopped listening to them.

    • “Thankfully the Democrats seem to have no clue that they are standing in a hole, they just keep busily digging away, all the while muttering about how they are gonna bury Trump.”

      Worse, for them, they have no intention to stop digging.

      They are so married to their Leftism ideology, that they find even the thought of stopping digging to be abhorrent.

      I’m not gonna tell them that, but I will hand them a big bottle of refreshing ice-cold water down into that ever-deepening hole they love so much to keep them comfy…

  18. That is a misleading poll.
    “the percentage of Gallup respondents who ALWAYS AGREE with the NRA on gun issues has stayed exactly the same from 1996 to 2012 – a whole, big 6 percent” Well I’m a member of the NRA and I don’t always agree with them.

    Lets take a national poll of who knows who this Weisser clown is and if they read the garbage he writes.
    What percentage would it be, .001 percent?

    • Thats a good point, I wonder if the next question in the survey was “do you mostly or generally agree with the NRA” and what the percentage for that would be. Only a Sith deals in absolutes!

  19. He says this like it’s a bad thing:

    “Most people are a lot more afraid of things they believe guns can be used to protect them against.”

    I slightly disagree. We have always been afraid of muggers, rapists, burglars, and terrorists. I don’t believe people are more afraid today than they ever have been.

    But unlike New York in the 1970’s, it is becoming increasingly socially acceptable for folks to protect themselves from aforementioned rapscallions by force of arms. It all started with Bernie Goetz, God Bless Him.

  20. “TTAG punching bag” – now I feel a tiny bit badly for the master of fact-twisting. (No, not really.)

    9/11/01: scrubbed on a total knee replacement with a surgeon whose son worked at the WTC without knowing if he was in the office or not.

  21. simply giving folks the results of a gun survey won’t persuade them to agree with what the survey says.

    “All our polls say we’re winning. Why can’t those damned voters see that we’re winning?”

  22. I think it’s more or less the slow creep of social libertarianism. While many don’t agree with Libertarian economic policy, foreign policy, etc but the social aspects have grown among both center and right wing young people. Even among the control freak left guns are less and less of an issue with younger voters

  23. 9/11/01: 11 years old, on my way to middle school. We had a field trip to the Kansas Cosmosphere that day. My stepdad is a radio DJ and was on the air that morning, still remember him making the announcement over the air while I rode to school in my mom’s minivan.

  24. America is leaning pro-gun because although the average American is stupid, he’s not that stupid.

  25. As more states relax gun restrictions and crime rates decline the Leftist claim that more guns equal more crime is exposed as a lie.

    Conservatives believe what they see. Leftists see what they believe.

  26. The 2004 Clinton ban sunset happened at exactly the right time, It gave dozens of future AR manufacturers 8 years to tool up production for what I believe was the perfect storm: Obama’s reelection followed closely by the Sandy Hook shooting. Without product on the shelves there would have been no buying frenzy. It is safe to say that 100’s of thousands of new gun owners were created, I personally had about 12 friends and family members buy for the first time over the last 4-5 years. Many of these new gun owners eventually found sites like this to inhabit, they were exposed to pro-2A opinions, shown the fallacy of the term “common sense” when used by anti-gun folk, and that James Yeager is a _____________!

    • I personally fit that description. And the 2A has become a passion. Never even thought about it until the rumored threats of it being taken away. My state tried after Sandy Hook. But I think I’ve done well building my collection around their illegal laws, albeit aggravating. Fingers crossed it starts to lean the way many other states now are, but I’m not holding my breath, just my rifle.

      • I didn’t give a hoot about guns until Hillary ran for president. I really thought she’s ban everything.(except for herself and friends.) Now? I kinda like the stuff. Now? forget shopping for shoes, this is more fun.

  27. meh. the douche is a moron monkey. like most hoplophobes.

    as if anyone who were born in the Telegraph era who just discovered how to log on to the tubes o internetS and gullible millennials aren’t the only ones who are stupid enough to actually read Huff & Puff post to get ‘informed’.

    xD

  28. This guy is such a hack at this point it’s embarrassing; he used to be at least a sort of Devil’s advocate figure that demonstrated some sort of knowledge/insight on gun issues, but now he’s the same as any other op-ed fool penning gun-scare articles. Purports to be a gun guy, yet seems dismayed by increasingly positive (the more correct term is “realistic” btw) attitudes regarding firearms in general; makes literally no sense, considering his supposed insight/familiarity with the subject. Purports to argue from a viewpoint pertaining to gun ownership in some way, yet tosses in a bunch of social vanity issues like gays/abortion/etc for literally no reason other than to assuage his liberal audience that their increasingly unpopular anti-gun beliefs are justified by the popularity/success of these unrelated issues. Also an odd tactic for someone who is supposedly writing from a perspective that is insightful & focused around firearms, even if not pro-gun.

    I don’t understand why they keep giving this guy ink to print with; he doesn’t seem to be different from any other Huffpo hack writer at this point, but is less fashionable & attractive, which I’d think would be off-putting to his shallow, ignorant audience.

    • He appears to be hired to act the role of typical gun owner, part of the 78% or 92% or whatever other number they conjure up of Americans who support banning assault weapons, universal background checks, etc. He provides a point of comparison against those fringe gun extremists who oppose those restrictions, allowing left-wingers to dismiss the opposition as a small group of radicals who can be ignored (except when they vote, contact their reps, or otherwise prove not to be the small, trivial bunch that the gun grabbers wish everyone to believe them to be.)

      • Exactly. He’s their “tame” gun owner”. They needed an I’m-a-gun-owner-BUT on the staff and he’s their judas goat. Does he take his pay in pieces of silver, I wonder…

  29. “…As for the vaunted NRA noise machine, the percentage of Gallup respondents who always agree with the NRA on gun issues has stayed exactly the same from 1996 to 2012 – a whole, big 6 percent.”

    So the polls don’t show support for the thing we want so we should totally disregard the polls.

    But…..

    The polls show 96 percent support for this other thing we do want so we should totally do it and these kinds of surveys are the gold standard for making policies.

  30. I remember exactly where i was the morning of 911…..just getting out of work and driving home listening to the blow by blow on npr. I can still trace the exact route to the exact house i lived in at the time….

  31. Police have the job of trying to figure out who killed you and bring them to justice, not protect you. If they do protect you, it is usually by happenstance. People are finally figuring that out. You and you and your attacker are almost ALWAYS first on the scene…..and you are usually on your own!

    • On the morning of Sept. 11th. 2011, I was finishing up getting ready to go on a job and saw the first plane hit the World Trade center. I got ready and included a rifle, ammo and 357 mag with plenty of ammo. Well I guess this idiot liberal was not speaking for me. seems the liberals have forgotten Sept. 11 th. and welcomed in people with like minded beliefs as the hijackers.

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