While we take solace in the fact that the Second Amendment is in place to prevent gun rights from being swept away by a majority vote, we should also find comfort in the fact that the victory of so many pro-gun candidates proves anti-gun polling may not be as accurate as it claims to be.
In other words, polls showing high support for this gun control scheme and that gun control scheme—be they “universal” background checks, gun storage laws or “assault weapons” bans—likely don’t accurately depict the mood of the American people, or Donald Trump would not be president right now. After all, Hillary Clinton ran on a gun control platform, promising everything from “universal” background checks to “high capacity” magazine bans and new regulations on Federal Firearms License holders. She even pledged to circumvent Congress and achieve her gun controls via executive orders, yet she lost on Election Day.
But recent polls would have us believe that Americans have done an about-face and are longing for more gun control less than a year after Clinton’s defeat.
[Hillary Clinton] even pledged to circumvent Congress and achieve her gun controls via executive orders, yet she lost on Election Day.For example, a recent poll conducted by POLITICO/Morning Consult claims high support for numerous gun controls that were part of Clinton’s platform.
[Gun controls] earning majority support: requiring all owners to store their guns in a safe storage unit (77 percent), creating a national database for each gun sale (76 percent), requiring a three-day waiting period for gun purchases (76 percent), banning assault-style weapons (72 percent), banning high-capacity magazines (72 percent), prohibiting Americans from carrying guns at schools and on college campuses (69 percent), limiting Americans to one firearms purchase per month (69 percent), limiting ammunition purchases (69 percent) and banning firearms from all workplace settings (59 percent).
Some of these controls are the left’s favorite, go-to controls—the “assault weapons” ban for instance—while others are clearly part of an emotional response to the heinous attack in Las Vegas. The emotional responses are clear in the support for “limiting ammunition purchases” and “banning firearms from all workplace settings.”
Think about it this way, though: One of the biggest contributors to mass public attacks is the fact that many workplaces ban firearms for everyone but criminals. Whether that workplace is Sandy Hook Elementary, Virginia Tech University, Orlando Pulse nightclub or a San Bernardino County building, the inability to have guns for self-defense garners the attention of violent criminals who want to attack without facing armed resistance.
The same poll that shows majority support for so much gun control also shows that the majority of Trump voters still prefer gun rights over gun control.Even if we just focus on the poll itself, one has to wonder how the same people who elected Trump to the White House can now support gun control in such majorities. The answer to this quandary is that they do not. The same poll that shows majority support for so much gun control also shows that the majority of Trump voters still prefer gun rights over gun control. Moreover, the poll shows that more Americans—47 percent—still prefer gun rights over the 42 percent who prefer gun control.
So how can the poll show such strong support for gun control? A one-word answer will suffice: Democrats.
For example, the poll found that only 25 percent of Democrats believe it is important to defend gun rights over gun control. Add in the independents who side with gun control, and the poll’s findings are self-explanatory.
An interesting note: For all the gun control support represented in the poll, only 40 percent of respondents believe gun control might actually decrease gun crime. And slightly fewer—32 percent—believe gun control could have just the opposite effect by making it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to acquire the guns they need for self-defense.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at [email protected].
