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Study: Most view Aurora as isolated incident
Crime scene tape surrounds the Century 16 movie theater where 12 people were killed in a shooting rampage July 23, 2012, in Aurora, Colo. / Getty Images
(CBS News) Although the recent movie theater shooting rampage in Aurora, Colo, has revived somewhat the issue of gun control as a topic of national debate, two-thirds of Americans see the shooting as an isolated incident, leaving public views of gun control largely unchanged since the attack, a recent Pew Research Center poll found.
According to the study, conducted on July 26-29, 47 percent of Americans said it is more important to control gun ownership, while 46 percent said it is important to protect gun ownership. That, according to Pew, remained on par with figures from April, where 45 percent were for tighter gun control and 49 percent were for gun rights protection.
Read the Pew Research study
Fear prompts gun sales, panic after Colo. massacre
About 67 percent of Americans polled said that they viewed the Aurora shooting, in which 12 people were killed, as an isolated incident; only 24 percent believe the event was indicative of a greater societal problem. That reflects a trend to see mass shootings as isolated incidents. After the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 dead, Americans were split on whether it was a reflection of broader social problems - 47 percent saw the incident in isolation compared with 46 who viewed it as a sign of larger societal ills. After last year's Tucson shooting that killed six and wounded then-Rep.Gabrielle Giffords, those figures were 58 percent and 31 percent, respectively.
The study added that those similar incidents, Virginia Tech and Tucson, didn't much change people's views of gun laws either.
Pew also said the issue of guns is also divided among political partisans, with Democrats favoring gun control by a margin of 72 percent to 21 percent, while Republicans supporting gun rights by a 71 percent to 26 percent margin.
The debate over guns also crosses along race, with 56 percent of white Americans in favor of gun rights compared to 73 percent of black Americans in favor of gun control; and gender, with 57 percent of men backing gun rights compared to 56 percent of women supporting gun control.
Following the Aurora shooting, gun sales in Colorado went up. During the weekend right after the incident, about 2,887 people were approved for background checks to purchase firearms in the state. Buyers' concerns over tightening gun restrictions led to the increase in sales.
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Of course they do. To say otherwise would be admitting they have a problem and that just ain't going to happen. They would not be able to justify having their guns then.
http://news.sympatico.ca/oped/coffee-talk/american_police_officer_bemoans_lack_of_guns_in_canada/5161d1e6
Yup, that Canada! : )
The rest of the world thinks that Americans are arrogant. And I have to say, from all the posts I've read over the years, it does seem that a lot of Americans think they are better than everyone else. And within the country, there is such hatred for each other. A constant bickering and fighting over everything. And there is this "every man for himself" attitude.
Every day I see numerous stories of people shooting each other. Kids getting a hold of guns. There are constant stories of parents not looking after their kids. Parents TORTURING there kids. I always joke about how there must be something in the water, but it really is no joke.
It's the year 2012 and you guys are still running around shooting each other, have major racism, no health care for everyone, and a lousy educational system. Other countries have it figured out, but for some reason you guys can't.
There is something seriously wrong in America.
You guys have a mass shooting almost every freakin' week!
And it is a reflection of "broader social problems", as well as TOO MANY GUNS.
We could easily solve this problem, but we would rather have the violent murder of innocents than actually doing anything.
Americans don't care that children are murdered.
Really, defending oneself against the threat of a random wackjob had nothing to do with the sales increase? Do some research and you may find that people buy firearms to defend themselves against the threats that the US Government has done nothing to combat (Flash Mobs by 'youths', rampant illegal immigration, violent inner-city knifing/beating crimes, etc). From your article, one would infer a gun buyer is in more fear of our Government taking away their Constitutional Rights than crime protection.
Not everything happens the way our Government and its lapdog, the Media, want it to.
2. The press does this by putting out articles for people to read
3. Advertisers pay for space the press offers
4. To maximize the profit potential, the press charges more money for articles more likely to be read/seen by many
To expand point 2:
Which article will more people be inclined to read - the one about death, destruction, or celebrity divorce (as if we have a chance to get with the newly single people) or the one about the little girl in a sun dress picking pansies all morning with a grin on her face?
To expand point 3:
Advertisers raise up the cost of their products in these ads to help compensate for the costs. If you don't like ads, write the company and demand they stop making the ads and then double-demand the cost-savings trickle down to the consumer (and we know that won't happen because their profit margins are more important than the readers/viewers/target markets...)
The press is not "liberal".
It's "capitalist".
As are the advertisers.
Who is the lapdog, again?