Posted on 05/06/2009 12:55:01 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON — Amid a wave of publicity about drug-related gun violence along the Mexican border and police killings in U.S. cities, an increasing number of Americans oppose new government efforts to regulate guns.
Recent nonpartisan polls show shrinking support for new gun-control measures and strong public sentiment for enforcing existing laws instead. So strong is the shift in public opinion that a proposed assault-weapons ban — once backed by 3 in 4 Americans — now rates barely 1 in 2.
Frank Newport, the editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll, told reporters Tuesday that "every bit of data is showing us that Americans are getting more conservative about gun control."
A CNN poll conducted in April found that 39 percent of Americans wanted stricter gun-control laws, down from 50 percent in 2000.
Forty-six percent said the gun laws should stay as they are, while 15 percent said they should be loosened — up from 9 percent in 2000.
When asked to identify the best way to reduce gun violence, 61 percent of Americans said stronger enforcement of existing laws, while 27 percent opted for stronger laws, according to an ABC News-Washington Post poll, also conducted in April.
Even an assault-weapons ban is not the political "sure thing" it once was. An April 23-26 poll by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found that support for curbing the sale of assault weapons and semiautomatic rifles has dropped from 75 percent in 1991 to 53 percent today.
Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, said the latest polls confirm what his gun-rights group has been saying all along.
"We have adequate gun laws on the books to address every situation," he said.
The shifting public mood on gun issues is one reason the Democratic administration is not trying to reinstate the...
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
This is my weapon, this is my gun...
The shifting public mood on ( blank ) issues is one reason the Democratic administration is not trying to reinstate the...( insert bill of choice here.)
“An armed society is a polite society.” Robert A. Heinlein
It would help if the liberals in the courts and DA offices would actually not plead off gun charges on offenders. I mean they pee and moan about not having the laws, but they don’t use them when they are there. They always drop gun charges. To heck with that, don’t give any criminals breaks for guilty pleas, just be hard asses and if necessary go to trial and hang the bastards.
It’s hard to believe that support for an AWB was once so high.
It has to be.
If you are smart, and carrying, you will do even more than normal to avoid trouble. Because anything you do to escalate a situation will be “while armed” whether you are using the gun or not.
It is apparent that no one is talking about the shrinking support for Zero and the US Congress? As in nonexistant. I don’t know anyone that can stand any of them. These truths haven’t apparently gotten out via the media.
The Tea Parties should have been the first clue to the eunuchs and morons in politics. Vote Them All Out!!!
Dear Leader can accomplish his goals in other ways.
An executive order can ban the import of ammo from places like Russia. Say goodbye to that Wolf, Golden Tiger, and SIlver Bear ammo for your Com-bloc rifles. Say hello to paying some astronomical amount for 20 rounds of "Winchester White Box" when you can find it.
Also, why worry about getting a gun ban through Congress, when you can pass a treaty instead?
Both of these actions give total cover to the "Blue Dogs" in the House.
Maybe people are actually getting educated... one can hope.
I had a libinlaw ask me if I owned an “assault rifle”. I asked her what the term meant. Of course, she was unable to answer, or give a definition.
So, I said, “by ‘assault rifle’, you are thinking ‘machine gun’, or some gun where you pull the trigger and spray bullets everywhere, right?”
uh huh...
Those have been de facto illegal since 1968, but why would you believe that that is what the current politicians are talking about if that wasn’t what they wanted you to believe?
(and I chit you not, this came out)
“Why would they want people to believe that?”
I said, “THEY’RE LYING TO YOU, INTENTIONALLY DECEIVING YOU, DON’T YOU GET IT?”
NEVER trust the government or the media..... continue to buy all the guns and ammo that you can afford.
Even if those numbers are accurate and even if politicians are holding back, they can change at the drop of a hat.
ahhh...in Starbucks all across Manhattan, DC and San Francisco today, heads are exploding...
Reporters need to understand that these polls are 'opinions' - just what people think. If 100 percent opted for stronger laws, it doesn't mean that stronger laws will reduce violence - just that people think that...
I know I am not telling anyone here anything, just vetting a bit...thanks.
You’re absolutely correct. Furthermore, criminals seem to be able to sense fear and vulnerability. Even a rather frail-appearing senior citizen who has a pistol in her purse may present a more confident demeanor and subconsciously deter a would-be mugger.
They still have near complete control of the media.
Gun & ammo sales are still unusually high six months after that worthless Empty Suit won the election.
Go ahead, Bambi. Make our Political Day.
Liberals just don’t get it.
They are going for a gun ban
Years ago, my husband scratched his cornea and was in agony in the middle of the night. We woke up our ophthalmologist, and he phoned in a scrip to the only pharmacy that was open at that hour -- the old Plaza Drug Store on Ponce de Leon Avenue in a very not nice part of town.
My husband was in no shape to go anywhere, so I got dressed, including my 1911A1 in a shoulder holster under my jacket and a little .25 baby Browning backup in my blue jeans pocket, and headed for the Plaza.
The front sidewalk was - as usual - lined with hookers, pimps, drug dealers, and strongarm men. I walked up to the door and they parted like the ever lovin' Red Sea.
Did you have a full-size 1911?
There's the nub - incarcerate criminals using guns for a LONG time and watch the "gun violence" go down.
Instead of a poll strengthening/loosening gun laws, they should do one about no plea bargains for those perps.
Even though I’m a male, I had a similar experience in Louisiana. I pulled up to a convenience store about 11pm, not in the best part of town. There was a group 8 or so young men blaring rap music, smoking, joking, drinking from paper bags. I exited my vehicle and walked into the store, and it was very plain that I had a rather large automatic strapped to my belt.
Suddenly, the music stopped and it was, “Good evening, sir. How are you, sir?”
... affording the ammo is not the problem ... finding it is. I live in South Texas and 9mm and .357 mag is more rare than Big Foot.
Many (most?) believed that so-called "assault weapons" are machine guns. And they object to "military weapons" being owned by citizens. (Such timid souls).
When one points out that no military in the world arms their soldiers today with semi-automatic only variants, there are a variety of reactions: (1) surprise; (2) disbelief; (3) inability to appreciate the difference; (4) unphased ignorance. (So?)
What does NOT disturb these people is a much more dangerous "weapon", namely, a government which ignores the charter of its own exitence to enforce unconstitutional law. It was against such tyranny the founders sought to protect the people's right to keep and bear arms against infringement.
Paper instruments (the Constitution and other written law) might slow the descent into tyranny, but the only thing that actually works is an armed people trained and willing to use force to protect freedom. It's not a guarantee, but it does give them a fighting chance.
This is why one should reload ammo. Of course, right now there's a shortage of components as well as ammo, but the savings are such that buying the appropriate equipment even for just your favorite caliber or two and learning how to reload will pay you back in only a few hundred rounds (esp. with rifle ammo).
One can also make bullets out of lead wheel weights or even buy lead or lead alloys, thus further reducing the cost. Primers and powder are the critical links, but they'll be back in normal amounts in a few months - the hoarders have to run out of either money or space pretty soon.
It never was. The myth about most Americans supporting the AWB was just that, a myth. The polls were misleading and very prejudiced against lawful use of firearms. The questions were staged such to give a strong outcome to the gun ban zealots no matter how you answered.
It backfired HARD on the Dims in 1994.
Mike
I live in Northwest Washington state and everything has been tough to get, but right now my real problem is finding 308’s locally.
Gun & ammo sales are still unusually high six months after that worthless Empty Suit won the election.
Those aspects of any treaty banning or limiting the RKBA will be challenged in federal court and struck down. Criticize the Heller decision as some may, at least it ruled the 2nd Amendment to be protective of a "fundamental right." A treaty passed under the authority of the Constitution has no more authority than a mere law, and laws are struck down all the time. In fact, the treaty would be attacked in court the same day or the day after it was ratified by the Senate - and there would be a temporary restraining order put on the enforcement of the anti-gun provisions until the case was actually decided on the merits.
I'm betting that enforcement would also be a BITCH. Think that the drug cartels wouldn't try to sneak in ammo and components (at enormous mark-ups, of course)? And, as long as you're dealing with the same logistical system, full autos and all manner of now-forbidden weapons and ammo would also come into the country - that which wasn't manufactured in someone's garage or basement on a CNC machine, that is.
Henry Kissenger has always said the way around the US contitution is via the law of treaties.
Guess who has been an advisor to obama...
Plus about 19,800 to spare.
It’s not ‘hoarders’. It’s production capacity, there won’t be primers around until next year. I’ve talked to guys who reload 20,000 rounds a year.
It never has been on the planet where I live. Somebody "cooking" the poll numbers with some "special sauce"?
If you didn't like those numbers, wait 'till the 2010 census comes out with ACRON aiding and abetting the statistical "adjustments".
Regards,
GtG
Beat me to it. That was an artifact of polls cleverly worded to provide a justification for a desired policy, not polls designed to measure actual feelings on the matter. The people constructing them know the difference, but the people quoting them often don't.
"Answer 'yes' or 'no' - do you believe the government should allow mental patients access to machine guns so that they can mow down entire school buses full of kiddies?" You're probably going to get a fairly high percentage of "no" there, and in the news that evening it's expressed as "90% of the respondents are in favor of gun control." The next guy citing it will be citing the news story, and the guy after that, citing the guy before. The original question is lost in the mists of history. A lot of phony statistics start out that way. Making public policy on their basis is building castles on sand, as the Dems found out in '94.
Recent nonpartisan polls show shrinking support for new gun-control measures
___________
Holder and his Kenyan Marxist comrade will be so disappointed. They will have to create a crisis to change public opinion. I’m sure Rham can fabricate one.
Exactly...
Even the Republican party fell for this stuff. Frank Wolf demanded a change in a poll that the Loudoun County Republican Committee put out from...
“Do you support or oppose banning firearms?”
to..
“Do you agree with the NRA’s stance on firearms?”
Many of us who are very pro-gun do NOT agree with the NRA’s stance on firearms. They compromise too much. He ruined a perfectly viable poll by doing that.
Mike
Yes, plea bargaining seems unconstitutional. When is a law a law? Only when it is enforced, but it is quicker/lazier to just plea out a guilty.
Then we release them for time off for good behavior in prison. Absurd.
Well what gets me is they always want to string up law-abiding people by these stupid laws, and make us follow all these laws that we can be sued under for protecting ourselves,
but when a violent felon commits a repeat crime(s) and is also armed, they always toss out the gun charge.
It is maddening because it’s generally liberal DA’s that do this. They would crucify a law-abiding citizen for violating the same laws they plea out on a repeat gun-carrying felon. Madness.
The ammo and component factories are supposedly running at full tilt. The problem is sudden and extreme demand. Part of it is police and military (though the latter should level off a bit since we’re drawing down in Iraq and the build-up in Schitholeistan is smaller than the Iraqi drawdown), but the largest part of it is the fear generated by Obama’s then-pending election, actual election and actual assumption of office. So, here we are, 7 months later with production about as high as it has ever been (short of big wars, when civilian demand was miniscule), and we still have shortages. It is the fear, and the hoarding. Sooner or later this phenomenon will peter out, restoring the supplies in stores and on internet sites that we were accustomed to seeing before last October.
Of course they aren’t and we will vote them out.
Also, I love how the free market is turning newspapers into dinosaurs!
In general, Americans may be dumb as rocks about politics but they understand greed and taking stuff from them is never a good idea!
This is what I am wondering.
NOTE:
1. The polls (and I do not trust pollsters0 say gun control is dropping with the public.
2. The polls say abortion is also dropping in the polls.
So what is it?
1. Country getting a bit more conservative?
2. More people starting to hate Dems (and hopefully RINOs)?
3. Pendulum effect?
We have to figure a way to counter the TV newsmedia. The papers are dying. Either boycott and cancel cable/sat TV or boycott advertisers. The TV Newsmedia are screwing us and ACORN.
Apparently, the message of the Tea Parties wasn’t loud enough. Time for Tea Party II on July 4th when everyone isn’t at work like the last ones that drew almost one million patriots.
I was there and it was awesome. There were DemoRATs all around me and, FYI, they’re pissed too. Hey, MSM, surprise, surprise!
At that time (around 1978) I think so. Later I got a lightweight Combat Commander, but I think at that time it was a regular Government Model.
I agree. July 4th. Tax day was good but hard because people were at work or some were finishing their taxes but it was the right time because sooner than later.
Tax Day 2 on July 4th needs to be huge. People need to relaize that O will turn America into a sewer and the America we still have is great.
The financial things and lowered standard of living could be fixed with “drill here drill now.”
Energy creates a LOT of wealth and jobs. . See PA (turn of the century) then TX (1920s to 1960s) then CA (1930s to 1950s) then AK (1970s to 1980s) then CA/LA offshore (1980s to now).
"Thank you, I'm well. And you?"
"Hoping to stay that way, sir."
Guess they figured I wouldn't be there if I was afraid, and if I wasn't afraid I must have some reason . . . .
9MM is scarcer than hens teeth in west virginia.
Im planning on taking a Suarez close range gunfighting class in october, and I still dont have enough 9mm.
I need ten boxes.
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