If you have been monitoring so-called “mainstream” media sources or seen Gallup’s recent headline announcing their latest poll findings on firearms, you would be led to believe that an overwhelming majority of Americans want to ban semi-automatic modern sporting rifles, also known as assault weapons.
Gallup’s report on the poll carried the headline, “Majorities Still Back Stricter Gun Laws, Assault Weapons Ban.” And technically, that’s true. However, channeling our inner Paul Harvey, now you’re going to hear the rest of the story.
In fact, a better headline would have been, “Support for Assault Weapons Ban Continues To Fall.” Here’s a breakdown of the findings of this most recent survey.
While a majority, only 52% of respondents said they favored a law banning so-called “assault weapons,” while 48% responded that they didn’t favor such a ban. But what’s interesting is that support for such a ban continues to fall from year to year.
In 2019, when Gallup first asked the question, support for such a ban was 61%, with only 39% opposing, and by 2022, support had dropped to 55%. If that trend continues, by the time the question is asked again it’s likely the majority will not favor a ban.
The assertion that “majorities still back stricter gun laws” is also somewhat misleading when you look at the trend over the past several years. In this year’s poll, 56% of Americans said they prefer stricter gun laws, while those saying they should be kept the same made up 33%. 10% of respondents said gun laws should be less strict.
The important finding, however, is that support for stricter laws has fallen precipitously over the past few decades, which probably would have made a more accurate headline. In fact, in 1990, the first time Gallup asked the question, 78% of respondents said they favored stricter gun laws—a full 22% more than answered that way this year. And the 56% favoring strict gun laws this year is down from 66% in June 2022 and 57% in October 2022. Last year’s polling revealed the same number—56%.
One thing the story did get right was mentioned in the subhead: “Support for a ban on handguns in the U.S. dropped to a near-record low.” In 1990, 60% of Americans said they favored a ban on handgun ownership. In the August survey, only 20% favored such a ban, second lowest only to 2021 when that number was 19%. Interestingly, according to the report, it is the changing opinion of Democrats that have driven that great decline in support.
“The decline in support for a handgun ban this year is largely owed to Democrats, whose backing has fallen by 16 points since 2023 to 33%—a new low—after the group showed increasing support for a ban the prior two years,” the report stated.
Only 6% of Republicans favored a handgun ban in this year’s survey, with 94% in opposition. The data for the report were derived from Gallup’s crime poll, conducted October 1-12.
Prohibition always works. See how successful the war on alcohol and drugs were. We are a booze and drug free country.
“Prohibition always works.”
I agree. The difficulty in assessment is not whether a law/amendment is in effect for whatever length of time, but the number of convictions as a result of a law/amendment.]
Deciding how to evaluate effectiveness of law requires an understanding that laws are not prohibitive, but punishment bases, with the naive expectation that a law is a deterrent; a proposition impossible to measure. To understand effeciveness, one should look at the success of convicting the law violater.
According to teachingamericanhistory.com, in the last fiscal year of “prohibition” there were 37, 588 convictions at the federal level, with a total of sentences reaching 3187 years. That seems, along with the number (which I don’t have) from all the other years, to be quite effective.
Overturning a law/amendent does not equate to “failure”, but only that the majority of voters prevailed…for whatever reasons. Note that the number of murders, and convictions for murder, is relatively stable over the previous 100 years, yet laws prohibiting murder are not repealed. The measure of results is not whether it is an effective law, but rather a reflection of what a society popularly (majority rule) considers “good”.
I just went to the Charlie Brown zone when I read that, Sam.
“Wah,wah, wah.”
“Wah,wah, wah.”
If the true intent was to completely eradicate “demon rum”, then, naturally, the law failed. But, if the intent was to punish people for sinful behavior, seems the law was effective.
Remember the US Government deliberately poisoned alcohol which caused thousands of deaths.
“…the US Government deliberately poisoned alcohol which caused thousands of deaths.”
IIRC, “The wages of sin is death.”
Those stats workout to an average sentence of 0.0843 years, or One Month.
“Those stats workout to an average sentence of 0.0843 years, or One Month.”
One can do amazing things with numbers.
I didn’t do the numbers in the source reference; didn’t check their math. Might shudda look more closely.
I think 2020 was a huge eye opener for people, and that was reflected in the NICS stats that proxy for gun sales. Also, the ongoing crime wave, encouraged as it is by lunatic prosecutors, encouraged people to rethink their long-held assumptions.
It has for me. Since 2020 I have expanded my collection of firearms and stocked up on ammunition — the latter I continue to this day. The lefty freaks have been dealt a serious blow with this last election, but they won’t give up. They are planning their return right now.
And because of that, these rifles are becoming more normalized. It’s no longer a fringe item.
They have been planning on taking control for centuries just here in the US that will never end. The chaos they created in a thankfully mostly failed attempt to take control led to all kinds of non typical new gun owners who then normalize it for their social circles. They will still try for control but I imagine outright bans are off the realistic table for a generation or two. Now restrictions on free speech, privacy, medical choice/privacy, and other aspects will continue until checked.
I’m starting to feel some cautious optimism that some of these authoritarian trends will be checked.
As you say: for now.
Since the late 1800’s, every 40 years or so progressives (e.g., Woodrow Wilson’s “best and brightest,” AKA pinkies from Harvard and Columbia) gain enough power to really push parts of their agenda. We the people hate it, and “progressive” becomes a dirty word for a while. But the authoritarian systems never get fully rolled back after each proggie high water mark, so we have cumulative effects that each new generation just comes to accept as the norm.
That gloomy long-term assessment aside, I’ll gladly take a reprieve of any magnitude and duration we can get.
and here is some of the reasons why Gallop keeps getting it wrong (biased sampling, small sample numbers, biased wording, exploiting emotional etc…) – It Seems Others Interested in How Gallup Keeps Getting It Wrong.
h ttps://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2024/11/19/it-seems-others-interested-in-how-gallup-keeps-getting-it-wrong-n1226934
and to add, Support for a National Ban on Handguns Drops to All-Time Low Among Democrats.
h ttps://www.shootingnewsweekly.com/gun-nation/support-for-a-national-ban-on-handguns-drops-to-all-time-low-among-democrats/
correction: should have been ‘Gallup’ and not ‘Gallop’
Last year, I assaulted my brother with a coconut cream pie. That type of pie is still not banned in his house. I do not understand it.
LifeSavor hit me in the mouth with a coconut cream pie any time.
Was reading about what countries would be the hardest to take over. Switzerland, Russia, military strength and so on.
Number 1 hardest to defeat on their list was the USA and the thing that made me smile was their mention of “along with the military the U.S. has 400 million citizen owned guns.
It referred to us citizens as a citizen miltia.🙂
Lifesavor.
The only solution I can come up with is, your brother must not be very well liked.
One more reason why the Dems, if they’re really concerned about losing their union and minority coalition, should abandon gun control.
It attracts no one to the party but repels many.
this!
The Democrats are learning that they too can’t trust their own government.
I saw what you did there beef.
😂
A minority of people are trying to thwart the majority; a threat to our democracy. People representing the threat to our democracy are a treasonous lot. Majority is the ruling element in our democracy, attempts to overturn the majority are clearly attempts to squash “the will of the people”.
Sam I Am,
Fun and sarcasm aside, the Democrat Party Masters have plainly revealed that they are interested in power and control, not the will of the people.
“…the Democrat Party….have plainly revealed that they are interested in power and control, not the will of the people.”
But the Republicrats proclaim that holding fast to “principle” is important enough to allow the nation to collapse, rather than Republicrats “be like them”.
In a fight to the death, the only thing that matters is being alive to rebuild. Only the complete and utter disappearance of leftist political parties can prevent full-on tranny.
Sam,
“Only the complete and utter disappearance of the leftist political parties can prevent full-on tranny.”
ISWYDT!!! Hope that was intentional, but funny as hell, either way!!
“ISWYDT!!!”
That was yesterday, and don’t know what I was thinking. Had to re-read my comment three times to recognize what I wrote. I proclaim there are two different ways to spell the same word.
Sam,
Well, as the woke idiots are fond of telling us, spelling and grammar are simply tools of the white patriarchy, so you can do spelling and grammar the same way liberals do math . . . . VERY poorly.
(Just kidding . . . but it was still funny!!)
“Well, as the woke idiots are fond of telling us, spelling and grammar are simply tools of the white patriarchy…”
It is settled science that mathematics was created by White Supremicists in Alabama.
The USA was founded as a Republic.
Woodrow Wilson & FDR turned us into a democracy.
Democracies always fail once the parasites, loafers & grasshoppers start looting the National Treasury, as Biden & the democrats have done.
“Democracies always fail once the parasites, loafers & grasshoppers start looting the National Treasury, as Biden & the democrats have done.”
It’s not like the Republicrats have clean hands on that.
Lefties losing it …. over Trump winning.
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1SdMN1HwEg
Anti 2A Heckler Denture Missiles Assault House Reps On Steps Of SCOTUS While Claiming 2A Is GONE.
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mwffKlPnA8
“If that trend continues, by the time the question is asked again it’s likely the majority will not favor a ban.”
Yes they will, on paper. The surveyors will simply rephrase the questions to get the results they are paid to generate. Linguistic acrobatics.
I notice in the heading picture the AK is laying across the AR.
Kinda like they had a great battle and the AK won.
Defeated the AR lies.
Leading from behind.
Or ya know, the AR is winning the fight and that’s a top down view of the AR with the AK over it about to do the final body slam to put it down for good.
Look Again. It’s definitely an icon that’s prohibiting wierd behavior between the two that involves the insertion of a foriegn magazine into an AR magwell.
Absolutely disgusting abhorrent behavior.
How do the disarmament crowd intend to ban something they can’t define any more than they can define a woman?
That’s part of the plan. Just as the left defines about 29 or so different gender types, they also would like to broaden the definition of assault weapons.
Assault Single Shots
Assault Lever Actions
Assault Over – Unders
Assault Side x Sides
Assault Revolvers
Assault …………………..
An assault weapon is any weapon you are, or can be, assaulted with.
(I borrowed that from someone)
By legally defining it as unicorn whisperer said.
You do realize that most of these ‘Assault Weapon bans’ (every one I’ve read the actual text of) define not just some semi-auto rifles but various pistols and shotguns as ‘Assault Weapons? Both CA and Illinois define any rifle chambered in .50 BMG as ‘Assault Weapons’– regardless of action.
So if only 20% of people are in favor of banning handguns but 53% for banning rifles it would seem that it would be quite possible to drive that 53% towards the 20% if you demonstrate the simple fact that you’re much more likely to hit something with a rifle.
There is 33% of the people that are OK with using a gun to defend themselves but they have the mistaken belief that they’d be able to easily hit their target with a handgun. Seems like there could be a public messaging effort to promote the superior effectiveness of rifles for self defense.
It’s purely media driven.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the hoplophobes pushed to ban handguns, not rifles, because the vast majority of gun crimes are committed with handguns.
But when that push proved unpopular with the public, the gun control zealots decided to invent the term “assault weapons” instead, realizing it was easy to convince the public that something big and black is evil just because it’s black–and that propaganda worked on 60% of the population, especially on liberals who are secretly scared of Blacks.
Then the media went all in on the propaganda to scare people into thinking that black rifles were scary, and their propaganda campaign continues to this day. The media started publicizing (I call it celebrating) every shooting done with a black rifle, while in the 99% of cases where a murder wasn’t done with a black rifle, the media didn’t bother mentioning the type of weapon used. The result was to brainwash 60% of the population into thinking that black rifles are “the weapon of choice for mass killings,” when in reality there are far more people stabbed to death each year in America than killed with rifles of all types and colors.
‘Assault Weapon’ bans aren’t just about semi-auto rifles. They define various pistols and shotguns as ‘Assault Weapons’ as well.
IHMO– more emphasis needs to be placed on this point. An ‘AW’ is whatever the law defines it to be. If an AW is allowed to stand based on a particular weapon it will rapidly be changed to include more and more weapons. For example
In CA anything chambered in .50 BMG is an ‘Assault Weapon’ regardless of action, any semi-automatic pistol with a detachable magazine and a threaded barrel that can except a flash hider or silencer (sic: law uses the term silencer instead of suppressor) is a banned ‘Assault Weapon’. If you have the misfortune to move to CA, make sure your 1911 or Glock or SIG etc. don’t have threaded barrels.
I haven’t read or seen any legal arguments that are fighting AW bans bringing this up.
Once again.
The Second Amendment was written for the Express purpose of We the People possessing Assault Weapons.
Freedom is not fearing your government.
“Freedom is not fearing your government”
“Freedom” is a word appropriate only when used to indicate a lack of disorder, such as “Free” from lint, or insects, or harm, or mistakes.
Freedom is tyranny (think I got it right, that time, Lamp).