Gallup's incomplete survey of Americans about firearms released on Monday, Nov. 18, got one thing right. When it comes to handguns, most Americans oppose banning their possession. What's notable is that support for the ban has plummeted among Democrats.
In early October, Gallup asked 1,023 people, “Do you think there should or should not be a law prohibiting the possession of handguns, except for police and authorized persons?''
Only 20%, or one in five, said handgun ownership should be banned.
Half of Democrats said they were in favor last year, but only one-third say it should be banned this year. This is an astonishing 16 percentage point decrease among the groups most likely to support banning firearms.
This is part of an overall decline in decades-long opposition to private handgun ownership. When Gallup began polling in 1959, more than 60 percent opposed it. By 1990, support for such a ban had fallen to 43 percent. Currently, that proportion is just 20%, effectively matching the lowest recorded in 2021 of 19%.
Why did it decline?
Part of the answer is the proliferation of privately owned firearms in the United States, currently estimated at 300 million to 400 million guns. Over time, opposition to them tends to fade as people become accustomed to seeing them, owning them, carrying them, or seeing others carrying them.
Another part of the answer was provided by Gallup itself in a 2023 study. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said having a gun in their home makes them a safer place. This answer was a complete reversal from when Gallup first started asking that question in 2000. At the time, only 35 percent said having a gun in their home would make them feel safer.
Part of the answer lies in the growing “Constitution Enforcement” movement, which now involves nearly 30 states.
And despite the false claims of anti-gun advocates that more guns means more crime, gun violence continues to decline, slowly and largely unappreciated. (The exception is big cities, most of which are run by Democrats and have imposed strict restrictions on gun ownership by law-abiding citizens, resulting in a sharp rise in criminal gun violence.) )
Gallup's Megan Brennan couldn't offer a convincing reason for the decline in opposition, especially among Democrats.
Gallup has been measuring public support for handgun bans since 1980, and even before that it asked similar questions about laws prohibiting the possession of handguns and revolvers.
Support for prohibiting the possession of handguns by unauthorized persons reached 60% in 1959, the first reading. Since then, support has never risen to majority level, consistently below 30% since 2008, and currently at near-record lows.
This year's decline in support for handgun bans is primarily driven by Democrats, whose support for the ban has declined 16 points to 33% from 2023, after showing increased support for bans over the past two years, and a new It reached a very low level.
Pandering by Harris
Some have suggested that Kamala Harris' pandering to naive gun owners about owning a Glock pistol, declaring that anyone entering her home without permission would be shot, may have backfired. . Her support for a total handgun ban in San Francisco and a ban on the sale of new handguns in California revealed her betrayal to uninformed gun owners. Perhaps that influenced her Democratic supporters enough to lower the ban on her opponents over the past 12 months.
Some have suggested that Democrats who live in high-crime cities prioritize self-defense over ideology. More than 22 million Americans have acquired guns for the first time under the Biden administration, revealing their unique views on the issue.
In any case, Gallup provides some useful revelations about the changing attitudes toward private handgun ownership, especially among Democrats, and we are only now beginning to see the light.
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