Despite the constant braying of gun control advocates and the mainstream media, Americans are simply not buying their narrative. Once again, a very reputable polling organization uncovered what most of us already know — Americans are not lining up behind a federal ban on so-called “assault weapons.”
This poll came mere days after President Joe Biden made yet another call to ban Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs).
The public, however, is hardly on board with the radical solution that does next to nothing to address violent crime. According to the latest Monmouth poll, a full 49% of Americans oppose a sweeping federal ban.
And in a bit of data that shows that the work of gun rights organizations is bearing fruit, that’s a nine-point drop in under a year in support for such a ban. As for those who oppose, that figure saw a seven-point surge upwards.
This latest revelation came on the heels of another poll in late February from Quinnipiac University. As reported by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the rhetoric blasting “assault rifles” or “assault weapons” is increasingly falling on deaf ears.
The poll found that 48% of Americans oppose a ban on MSRs, a three-point jump from just last July. It coincides with the breakneck pace of firearms sales in recent years, especially with the exact sporting rifles that so many grandstanding politicians want to wipe away.
How fast are they selling? According to data from the weapons industry, Americans have legally purchased over 24.4 million MSRs since 1990, including a whopping 4.5 million in just the last three years.
Even the mainstream media has had to acknowledge that there is a wide diversity of those now buying these popular firearms. NBC News interviewed 26-year-old mother Megan Hill, who had nothing but positives about her family owning an AR-15.
“We looked at the AR-15, and it was all in one package. You can target shoot with it, protect yourself with it, hunt with it.” She expressed her gratitude that it has not had to be used for self-defense while noting that it is satisfying to know it is there to protect her young family.
Just before the Quinnipiac survey, an early February ABC News/Washington Post poll quizzed Americans on their opinions on a nationwide “assault weapons” prohibition. It showed an astounding 10-point surge in opposition to such a measure since only 2019.
And only 47% of those surveyed reported that they support such an idea. Since the polling began in 1995, that marked the second-lowest level of support for the proposal.
The report stated that while many powerful Washington leaders are all in for the blanket ban, Americans as a whole are divided on the issue. It then erroneously questioned why the public is tilting in favor of gun ownership considering the recent spate of violence.
Why is that question in error? Because far from being a reason for huge swaths of the U.S. culture shifting towards opposition to gun ownership, the exact opposite is true.
Americans are not blind. Numbers can be used to prove just about anything one sets out to promote, but people know what’s going on in their cities and in their towns. The pollsters for ABC News and the Washington Post may see surging violence as a reason to disarm, but individuals and families do not.
Instead, they correctly see the dire need to protect themselves. It’s that simple.
If surveys are to be believed, there was a time when the public leaned towards banning MSRs, even as they gained in popularity. That time notably has passed if it ever was. Instead, the people no longer buy the line that self-defense is the sole purview of law enforcement.
Rather, it is squarely on each and every one of us to be our own first responder. Doctors and hospitals are wonderful, but their existence is no reason not to learn CPR and first aid.
