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Gallup released their latest poll on guns today. It’s full of win for fans of firearms freedom. Less than half of Americans (48 percent) currently favor stricter laws for the sale of firearms. That stat’s more-or-less back to where it was before the Newtown massacre, which raised the “more gun laws, please” answer’s popularity to 58 percent. Which is nothing compared to 1990, when 78 percent of Americans surveyed favored stricter gun sales laws. [Click here to see the historic decline] Even better, 73 percent of Americans are now against . . .

a ban on handguns (“except by the police and other authorized persons”). But, as Gallup points out, that still means that “about one in four Americans say handgun possession should be banned.” Not to be a Debbie Downer, but you could say that the idea of a complete handgun ban is like a virus lurking in the bloodstream of America’s body politic, reading to multiply when conditions change.

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Then again, while Newtown moved the needle for support for gun sale laws, it produced barely a blip of support for a handgun ban. The post-Newtown 2012 Gallup gun poll was taken only five days after the Sandy Hook slaughter. Support for a handgun ban was two percentage points down from the previous year (24 vs. 26 percent). And only increased one percentage point (to 25 percent) in 2013. And added a single percentage point in 2014 (to 26 percent).

Quite simply, the more Americans who own handguns, the more Americans who carry handguns, the safer Americans’ gun rights. I reckon the Obama-fueled, post-Newtown surge in handgun sales staved-off a dramatic increase in the desire to ban them. As my father used to say, humans are all listening to WIIFM: Whats In It For Me. As long as people consider a handgun their personal defense weapon, they’ll fight to keep them legal.

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67 COMMENTS

  1. I’m an authorized person, a militia of one, if you will. It is already illegal for an unauthorized person to own a gun. A snake eating its tail…

  3. I am pretty sure the vast majority of sales post-Newtown were for those “evil black rifles” especially since there was a bill presented in Congress to ban them permanently.

    I saw nothing regarding handguns except in Maryland making them much harder to acquire. The same process just to purchase one in Maryland would pass muster in most states to acquire a CCW permit.

    • Maryland… the “Free State”. Should be renamed the ‘get something for free if you are illegally here, tired of working, or just want the government to take care of everything state.’

    • Several things:

      1. Violent crime dropped across the board since peaking in ’92 to ’93.
      2. RKBA advocates woke up and realized that we could lose everything if we allowed the Democrats in Congress to run with the issue. The 1994 election put a wave of GOP candidates into office based on, more than any other single issue, gun control laws passed by the Democrats. For the first time in decades, the Democrats lost complete control of the Congress.
      3. The NRA evolved from an organization of hunters and trap shooters to a new breed to shooter much more concerned with RKBA. The NRA had been, until that point, far too willing to make “compromises” on gun control issues, which resulted in all sorts of defeats long-term.

  5. Of course, in a constitutional republic, which is this supposed to be, the question is irrelevant. A right cannot be granted or taken away by either the government or the popular opinion. But then of course we are no longer a constitutional republic, but more of a democracy, Iran-style.

      • And what’s to stop them if and when the majority will desire it to happen? What’s to prevent the zealots in enforcing their agenda, for the good of all, especially the children, in weeding out the undesirables, as they see fit?

  6. I really don’t think the pole is accurate. Everyone I have talked too in my daily travels to customers sites to repair machinery. Business owners and shop employees which is quite alot, day in day out for years and I have ran across just a handful of people that say more gun control or any of oboma ‘ s other trampling ‘ s of our rights and freedom’s and have found that it is more likely about 85 to 15 for less strict regulations for law abiding citizens but stiffer penalties for criminals. And on other issues just enforce what we have already. Kill obomacare before it kills us.

    • sure, folks with real jobs think that way. i’m surrounded by people who get paid handsomely for barely lifting a finger. some of them are pretty far out of touch. i’m not sure if a wake up call will help.
      i lament the passing of local manufacturing into our present service industry. at least these folks still want to protect themselves or can be approached on the topic.
      but our politicos, magnates, medicos, advocates, academians and advert execs are too well insulated. i realize i generalize and that there are exeptions but sheesh.

    • Which, if so, only means Bloomberg and his fellow gun grabin’ billionaires will just increase the money dump while his devious lying minions and collaborators under guise of MDA, Everytown, Feinstein, et al, will ramp up the delusional rhetoric and propaganda in schools, government, media and entertainment for everyone’s consumption.
      The things that most save us are the internet exposure of the antis’ falsehoods, as stated above, the shrill extremism the antis practice, which puts most people off, and that many Americans aren’t too concerned about either gun rights or gun control because even though they know the issue is out there, they don’t believe it particularly affects them or impacts their lives.

  9. Maybe the anti-gunners are starting to see ALL the handwriting on the wall!

    But I, KFDI. (kind of fu___ doubt it) just more propaganda to keep us from the poles. STAY FOCUSED! Vote them out of office!

  10. The news isn’t all bad; if 1 in 4 Americans want to ban handguns then that means 75 percent do not.

    • Wasn’t this covered in a south park episode, where they said that 1 in 4 Americans believe 9/11 was a conspiracy, and that just means that 1 in 4 Americans are idiots?

    • The rest of the world didn’t fare that much better. Take Russia for example:

      From Reuters in 2011: “In a survey released this week, 32 percent of Russians believed the Earth was the center of the Solar system; 55 percent that all radioactivity is man-made; and 29 percent that the first humans lived when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.”

      Europeans did just as bad apparently:

      “Americans might be slightly comforted knowing that they actually fared better than Europeans: 1 in 3 residents of the European Union think the sun revolves around the earth.”

  12. Now if only we could get the general public to comprehend the differences between semiautomatic, select-fire, and full automatic…

  14. The fear is it only takes 25% to control the remaining population. The culture of democracy forgoes ballistic terror and erodes your rights by legislation…that folks is less than 1% and enforced and administrated by an another 2%.

    The one tool you have is marking your X at the ballot.

  15. “As my father used to say, humans are all listening to WIIFM: Whats In It For Me. As long as people consider a handgun their personal defense weapon, they’ll fight to keep them legal.”

    Or another way of looking at is the more people who consider a handgun their personal property, the more will fight to keep from losing the money they spent on it.

  17. It doesn’t seem as if Gallup is too happy with their results…from their “bottom line”:

    “This suggests that while shootings may still occur with disturbing regularity in the U.S., there is a disconnect between those events and support for making gun laws stricter.”

    The American people – as opposed to Gallup – don’t connect Newtown (referenced earlier in their “bottom line”) with the right to own a handgun because there is no connection. And what is “disturbing regularity” – the false FBI figures, or the media hype of these infrequent tragedies?

    Well, at least they didn’t skew the poll to match their own prejudices. I hope….

  19. I’ve seen a huge change in Illinois. Lots of support for CC. I do talk to the occasional idiot who thinks abloodbath/wildwest Illinois will result. My usual response is Indiana has very good laws and (to ME) is much safer. And run a helluva’ lot better with mainly Republicans in charge.

  20. That’s pretty good, 1 in 4 think childhood vaccines are dangerous, half of Americans don’t believe in evolution.

    • Not sure where you’re getting hose stats but it seems you have been ignoring the news lately, CDC researchers are now blowing the whistle on what that 25% already knew.

  21. “Authorized persons.”

    Huh?

    That could be interpreted a lot of different ways. Perhaps with the proliferation of right-to-carry laws and their associated Concealed Carry Permit processes, more of the survey responders would consider someone like me an “authorized person.” Who knows?

  22. “As my father used to say,humans are all listening to WIIFM: Whats In It For Me.”

    Credits to your father! I’m stealing that one.

  24. So les than half of the group that elected Barack Ebola — twice! — now favors a handgun ban? Either they’re getting smarter or some of them lost their entitlements.

  25. I recently heard there are more handguns than there are rifles and shotguns out there.
    And they want them banned?

  26. Amazed only 1 in 4 want handguns banned.

    They must be the most vocal 25% because their shouting for a ban often is the only thing I hear in the debate!

  27. If one in four want to ban handguns, they can just give any guns they have to the rest of us! Problem solved!

  28. Misleading, It Actually says “3 out of 4 people polled wants Firearms available to them.” Also “25% of those remaining are confirmed idiots.”

  29. Few points here, again the daily TTAG sandy hook smoke and mirrors article, it seems it wouldn’t be a day here at TTAG without it, also another point, rights cannot be voted away, as was set up in the Constitutional Republic. All this talk of democracy and how many people favor this or that is bunk, bunk for the misinformed and/or uneducated. A recurring theme here seems to reinforce the notion that rights are at the whim of the electorate. It’s unfortunate, but not surprising from much of other seeming agenda that comes from this site. Happy Halloween.

    • Using vehicles like south park to discredit the 25% that can still critically think ishould be seen as a complement to that 25% because SP is an overt propaganda tool(and not even close to funny anymore to boot).

    • Beat me to it Hannibal… Of course Pg2 is part of the 1/4th that was actually mentioned in the South Park episode. Although, now a days it looks like only about 10% believe 9/11 was a conspiracy… Pg2 is a very special little snowflake.

      • @NYC, Figured the TTAG 9/11 Troll would surface after posting on it….hey, whatever the numbers are, 10%, 25%, or whatever %, glad to be a part of it instead the remaining percentage that believes 9/11 changed physics and paper can melt steel. I suspect you already know this but you have some agenda on this forum to attempt to discredit any rational discussion of the topic.

        • “@NYC, Figured the TTAG 9/11 Troll would surface after posting on it….”

          Holy projection Snowflake!

          “hey, whatever the numbers are, 10%, 25%, or whatever %, glad to be a part of it instead the remaining percentage that believes 9/11 changed physics and paper can melt steel.”

          Standard truther oversimplification of events.

          “I suspect you already know this but you have some agenda on this forum to attempt to discredit any rational discussion of the topic.”

          You figured me out! I did it! I was the one who remotely piloted the second plane into the World Trade Center…. or was it a missile? I forget. Anyway, you’ll be glad to know that you have been targeted for termination by the shadow government… or George Bush… or Obama… or someone on which you can blame your inferiority complex. After setting up the most elaborate and (apparently) worst kept secret conspiracy in the world that killed 3,000 of my fellow citizens, offing the jenius (sic) who figured us all out will be quite easy.

          /Snowflake Derp

        • “@NYC, Figured the TTAG 9/11 Troll would surface after posting on it….”

          Holy projection Snowflake!

          “hey, whatever the numbers are, 10%, 25%, or whatever %, glad to be a part of it instead the remaining percentage that believes 9/11 changed physics and paper can melt steel.”

          Standard truther oversimplification of events.

          “I suspect you already know this but you have some agenda on this forum to attempt to discredit any rational discussion of the topic.”

          You figured me out! I did it! I was the one who remotely piloted the second plane into the World Trade Center…. or was it a missile? I forget. Anyway, you’ll be glad to know you have been targeted for termination by the shadow government… or George Bush… or Obama… or someone on which you can blame your inferiority complex. After setting up the most elaborate and (apparently) worst kept secret conspiracy in the world that killed 3,000 of my fellow citizens, offing the jenius (sic) who figured us all out will be quite easy.

          /Snowflake Derp

        • @NYC. literally laughing out loud, standard propagandist response: obfuscate the issue and dodge any real discussion of facts with a thick layer of ad hominem. Too funny. And too predictable.

  31. Breaking new— new study shows that one in four Americans secretly wish to be British ” subjects”.

  32. I would say that their is an actual lessening of a zeal for hand gun control as compared to the 60s, 70s, or 80s.

  38. who ever did that chart and statistics is a OBSCENITY DELETED. complete inconsistency and numerical errors throughout.

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