The latest poll conducted by McLaughlin & Associates on behalf of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) confirms what other recent polls have revealed. Americans generally not only support the right to keep and bear arms, but they also like the politicians and judges who agree with it.
McLaughlin poll
Earlier this month, the pollster asked 1,000 registered voters the following question:
How important is it to you to confirm and appoint federal judges whose top priority is to do their best to strictly abide by the Second Amendment?
More than 3 in 4 people said this issue was “important” and 50% said this issue was “very important” to them.
they asked:
How important is it to you that political leaders in Washington, D.C. protect and defend the rights of Second Amendment law-abiding gun owners?
More than three-quarters of respondents agreed with this, and half said it was “very important.”
Next question:
Do you think President Donald Trump will prioritize protecting and defending the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners?
More than 6 in 10 people said yes, but only 1 in 6 doubted whether they would do so.
Then they asked:
Who do you think will do a better job of protecting the Second Amendment rights of American gun owners, Republicans or Democrats in Congress?
Six in 10 said they were Republicans, but only a quarter thought Democrats would better protect the Second Amendment.
Finally:
Do you think Americans' Second Amendment rights will be better protected with Donald Trump as president and Republicans in control of Congress?
More than 6 in 10 people said yes, while only 20% said no.
pew research
These poll results confirm what the Pew Research Center found in July: More than 4 in 10 American adults own at least one firearm in their home. Half of Republicans told Pew that they own at least one firearm in their household. An astonishing 20% of Democrats admit to having a firearm in their home. Clearly, reality trumps ideology in the Democratic Party.
Pew also found that among people who don't currently own firearms, most Republicans who are non-owners accept the concept. And surprisingly, 4 in 10 Democrats say they are seriously considering owning a firearm for the first time.
The Pew survey also found that a majority of Americans say gun ownership “makes us more safe, not less.”
Gallup survey results
Similarly, a recent Gallup poll confirmed that half of Americans keep a gun at home, up from just over a third a decade ago.
Gallup also found that nearly 8 in 10 Americans oppose banning handgun ownership, up from 3 in 4 a decade ago. Support for a ban has fallen even further, from one in four people in 2013 to just one in five today.
They asked, “Do you think the manufacture, possession, and sale of semi-automatic firearms (also known as assault rifles) should or should not be banned?” Half of those surveyed said no, compared to less than four in 10 five years ago.
These results are all the more remarkable given the fierce war the current administration is waging over private ownership of firearms. Most Americans do not accept the premise that prohibition will improve safety and reduce gun violence. More and more people are realizing that the gun war has nothing to do with public safety or reducing gun-related crime. Rather, it is part of a multigenerational movement to disarm all Americans.
Many people remember Barack Obama's “bitter and clingy” remarks made during the 2008 campaign.
If you go to these small towns in Pennsylvania, like many small towns in the Midwest, they've lost jobs for 25 years and there's nothing to replace them. And they collapsed through the Clinton administration, the Bush administration, and each successive administration said that these communities would somehow rebuild, but they didn't.
And it's no wonder they become bitter, clinging to guns, religion, antipathy toward people who don't look like them, anti-immigrant sentiment, anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
The poll McLaughlin released earlier this week confirms two things. It means that Americans cherish the right to keep and bear firearms, and we remember those who seek to abolish that right.
