The majority of Americans are now lined up in opposition to federal and state attempts to prohibit so-called “assault weapons.”
That’s the conclusion from the most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Monday. Despite massive volumes of propaganda pouring out of the mainstream media and the White House, voters reject efforts to strip constitutional rights away.
The poll questioned 1,003 adults between Jan. 27 and Feb. 1, 2023.
According to the findings, a 51% majority of the nation opposes the ban while 47% support it. The figures point to a larger trend while reflecting a ten-percentage point increase in rejecting the ban and a nine percentage point drop in support since Sept. 2019.
Clearly, the best efforts of political leaders from the White House on down are not having their desired effects on the American public.
President Joe Biden has intensified his recent calls for bans on these popular semiautomatic rifles. However, he faces a Congress that shows little motivation to carry through with his wishes. Lawmakers have largely avoided the hot-button issue since the ban on these firearms expired in 2004.
That has hardly stopped the president and a few high-profile state leaders from attempting to ram the controversial bans through. In a statement from the White House last month, Biden touted his anti-gun credentials while endorsing yet further gun control restrictions.
“Today, Senator (Dianne) Feinstein, with whom I worked with to pass the last Assault Weapons Ban in 1994, has once again introduced an Assault Weapons and High-Capacity Magazine Ban in the Senate, as well as legislation raising the age to purchase them to 21.”
Clearly there is still much work to be done to defend every American’s Second Amendment rights. However, it is noteworthy that the trend is distinctly towards more Americans realizing that the right to keep and bear arms is a sacred liberty that deserves defending.
As recently as 2018, support for the “assault weapons” ban peaked at 62%.
However, as Breitbart News noted in 2022, a Gallup poll revealed that support for gun control efforts dropped almost 10% between just June and October of last year.
Pollsters found that highly publicized tragedies tend to push support for firearms restrictions higher for a brief time. This, of course, coincides with lawmakers and the mainstream media pushing a narrative blaming guns for violent acts rather than the criminals themselves.
Last year’s Gallup polling showed that 46% of Americans have a gun either in their home or somewhere on their property, and 33% of respondents reported they “personally own a gun.”
It is refreshing to see the tide turning against those who would restrict constitutional freedoms of law-abiding citizens. However, it is also very telling that these polls even exist, and this data must be closely watched by those who treasure their Second Amendment rights.
After all, are these surveys conducted for other freedoms guaranteed within the Bill of Rights? Do pollsters canvas the nation attempting to determine the level of support for freedom of speech or of religion? Is the right to peaceably assemble hotly debated? Are constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure voted on regularly by those who want to strip them away?
No. The Second Amendment is unique in that there is a constant barrage of criticism from those who believe it has a second-class status among liberties enshrined in the Constitution.
Therefore, it requires constant attention and support from those who hold its protections dear and a line of defense against those who would neuter it to the point of being meaningless. The framers specifically guaranteed the right of Americans to keep and bear arms, a liberty that is sweeping and very clear.
And while the bad news is that our freedoms are even up for debate, the good news in 2023 is that the majority of Americans see that right as sacred.