The AMA Should Know Better

It’s frustrating, every year, when the American Medical Association (AMA) has its annual meeting and votes to support all sorts of new gun-control schemes even though guns are used by law-abiding citizens over 1.6 million times a year to preserve life—mostly without firing a shot.

This year, the hot-button item for the AMA was a call for banning “ghost guns,” which is actually a backdoor way to stop hobbyists from making their own firearms–something they have done since before this country was founded.

Over the years, the AMA has supported just about every kind of gun-control plan you could imagine; from bans on “assault weapons” to bans on handguns to waiting periods for gun purchasers.

Fortunately, people don’t seem to be listening to their doctors nowadays when it comes to politics. Recent research into Americans’ thoughts on various gun-control schemes shows that the tide is turning—especially on so-called “assault weapons.”

According to results from a recent Quinnipiac University Poll, American support for a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” which is one of President Joe Biden’s (D) biggest goals, has dropped substantially.

“In today’s poll, 50 percent of registered voters support a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons, while 45 percent oppose it,” the press release announcing the results stated. “This is the lowest level of support among registered voters for a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons since February 2013 when the question was first asked by the Quinnipiac University Poll.”

In fact, the highest level of support for such a ban was in February of 2018, when 67% supported a ban, compared to only 29% in opposition. That means, in just four years, support for the ban has fallen by 17%, while opposition has risen by 16%!

One likely reason is that the social unrest of the last few years, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent concerns, resulted in more people realizing that guns save lives. That fact also played a big role in nearly 14 million Americans deciding to purchase their first firearm in 2020 and 2021.