Gallup released a series of poll on the Second Amendment and found some interesting things. First, as Cortney wrote earlier today, a candidate’s stance on gun rights is an important issue to almost one-in-four voters. Yet, 55 percent are in favor of stricter gun laws, which are primarily being driven by more Democrats and Independents leaning towards curtailing Second Amendment rights. At the same time, the polling company noted that this issue fluctuates between support for more and less gun control:
In 2007, the year of the Virginia Tech massacre, the percentage of Americans who favored stricter laws on gun sales dropped to a bare majority (51%) for the first time in several years. Since then, support for stricter laws had stayed under 50%, except in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. At that point, 58% of Americans said they were in favor of stricter laws on gun sales. Although support for stricter laws receded after those shootings, in which a young man fatally shot 20 children and six adults, it has yet to return to the 44% level it was at before that tragedy.
Lastly, 56 percent of Americans feel that more concealed firearms would make the country safer, though only after an applicant has passing a background check and taken a training course. This is standard protocol for most who are applying for a concealed firearm permit. Also, support for a ban on handguns fell to a near record low of 27 percent.
So, the support for stricter gun laws is tenuous at best, given its history–and Americans support their fellow citizens carrying concealed firearms, while also not balking at the horrific concept of a handgun ban. I’ll take it as a win. After Sandy Hook, support for stricter gun laws fell below 50 percent. We’ve had a strong of horrific shootings at movie theaters and college campuses, along with the president’s press conference that must’ve energized the anti-gun left with his rhetoric about politicizing gun violence to curb gun rights.
Once Americans learn the fact about the gun control, things return to normal. We’re not a shooting gallery; violent crime is dropping. This is one of the reasons why NBC News feels that support for gun control has declined. Moreover, they noted that even if more Democrats and Independents support gun control and boost its numbers in the polls, it’s unlikely that a shift on this issue would be significant, let alone one that would make anti-gun progressives satisfied.
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