Poll: Inconclusive support for gun control

Ask Americans whether they support the idea of stricter laws governing the sale of firearms, and they'll offer a fairly robust "yes," according to the results of a new Gallup poll.

But ask them whether those stricter laws should include a ban on the sale of semi-automatic weapons, like the one used in last week's massacre of 27 people in Newtown, Conn., and you'll get a far more ambivalent response.

That is the paradox confronting advocates for tougher gun control laws - proposals restricting the sale and use of firearms tend to be more popular in theory than in execution.

A Gallup survey conducted just days after Newtown found that 58 percent of American adults support stricter laws covering the sale of firearms, up from 43 percent in 2011. Thirty-four percent believe the laws should be kept as they are, and only six percent believe they should be made less strict. By this measure, at least, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School has strengthened support for gun control.

But advocates for stricter gun laws continue to face opposition on other fronts, according to a few other findings from Gallup's poll. Only 44 percent of respondents voiced support for a ban on semi-automatic weapons, one commonly-floated solution in the aftermath of Newtown. Fifty-one percent were opposed to such a ban, and both numbers have scarcely changed in the last few years.

• Americans demand tighter gun control
• Will Washington take on gun control?

And a whopping 74 percent of respondents - a record high - opposed a ban on the possession of handguns, compared to only 24 percent who supported such a ban. A handgun ban has not entered the post-Newtown dialogue on gun control, and given numbers like these, that does not seem likely to change any time soon.

Gallup's poll surveyed 1,038 adults between December 19 and 22 and had a margin of error of plus or minus four percent.

[former_usmc]

We need to focus on the real problem which is psychopathic killers hurting people not worrying about the tools that they use. Our politicians make it worse diverting attention to the gun not the psycho person using it. The acts that these psychos commit are already illegal only an idiot would expect another law to stop someone who is already planning to break the existing law.

The NRA is right. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Undercover air martials fly on planes to protect passengers. We should have properly trained volunteer undercover martials in our schools, malls and other public places. I am a former USMC sergeant I will again volunteer to be properly trained to serve and protect. How about other vets also stepping up to the plate.

[pleaseletitbeso]

Interesting poll results,

Definitely not the landslide that the anti-group would lead many to believe.

There is hope for this Nation yet.

[rodzzzzz]

The issue of gun control is complex. The debate so far has been characterised by simplistic views from both sides. But the NRA takes the cake for the dumbest comments, which is a bit of a worry. See this satirical piece on the NRA's views: http://sorrysods.com/an-apology-from-the-nra-on-recent-mass-shootings.

[Yardpilot]

Nothing complex about it. On the pro side most people understand that the idea is to not interferes with the rights of the individual, but to hold that person responsible for the actions. On the anti side they believe that personal responsibility is a false concept, and that people need to be controlled.

[sshl]

Establish a 2nd Amendment Preservation Act

http://wh.gov/QoNK

[Moishgil]

To have the capacity to appreciate that guns are the problem, not the solution, one must first update their personal operating system -if they are stilling working with DOS! http://tentofabraham.wordpress.com/2012/12/25/is-your-operating-system-up-to-date/

[Moishgil]

To have the capacity to appreciate that guns are the problem, not the solution, one must first update their personal operating system -if they are stilling working with DOS! http://tentofabraham.wordpress.com/2012/12/25/is-your-operating-system-up-to-date/

[former_usmc]

You never served in the military did you? Those that would have been left would all be speaking German if you were the Allied Commander when that psycho was killing. It was the guns that brought freedom to Europe and the rest of the world. We need more properly trained people with guns everywhere innocent people are threatened. Don't worry as long as I have my gun I'll protect you when they come for your children. You can't even be using DOS. You must still be using an Abacus.

[Jrc3rick]

We need more guns. Everybody should be packing. We wouldn't have this problem if everybody was holding a gun. You never see anybody going into a biker bar and robbing them that's because criminals know that bikers are packing. What would you do if someone used a vehicle to mow down pedestrians during a parade? How would you stop that? In my town we have about 30 children who hold hands leaving the YMCA to go wherever they're going. How are you going to stop that guy from going up on the sidewalk? Remember this.Government only works when it fears the people. That is the purpose of the second amendment. Without it there could only be Tyranny. When the people fear the government there is tyranny when the government fears the people there is liberty Thomas Jefferson quote

[Polibber]

The "right to bear arms" is an integral part of the US Constitution. The second amendment is subject to different interpretations but the heart of the amendment still stands. It was intended as a measure of personal responsibility for the strength of the new Union. The only way to prevent mass shootings is to totally disarm the public. The only way to do that is to repeal the second amendment. Trying to do that will cause a revolution that the country will never survive. Guns are a fact of life in this country - just as much as automobiles. Trying to eliminate shooting deaths by legislating away guns is like legislating away rain to prevent floods. It ain't gonna happen! Find a real and workable solution or shut up.

[jjoe57]

Slowly but surely the pro-gun backlash is happening, even as the news about Sandy Hook fades. By the time Congress is presented with gun control legislation next month, the NRA forces will have succeeded--once again--to block it (or water it down considerably). Then we'll just wait for the next horrific massacre in the lives of brave gun-loving Americans.

[former_usmc]

Do you hear what is coming out of your mouth? A psychopath kills people and you worry about what tool he used. It is people like you who perpetuate these acts. Stop worry about the guns let's devote our time and energy trying to figure out how to detect these people before they can act and deter them from even thinking they can make a name for themselves. Didn't anyone notice the psycho walking across the parking lot with a gun? Was anyone around who could have terminated the threat? No people like you disarmed your deterant.

[tombarnes92]

Why would you want gun control if hands and feet kill more people than rifles?

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8

On another note, do you think the US government will always be responsible and benign...forever? an you guarantee that for all time?
This law review,"Of Holocausts and Gun Control,75 Wash.U.L.Q. 1237(online)" raises some interesting points such as this:
"but it is nevertheless an arresting reality that not one of the principal genocides of the twentieth century, and there have been dozens, has been inflicted on a population that was armed."
http://lawreview.wustl.edu/inprint/75-3/753-4.html

What most gun control advocates want is a government controlled monopoly on lethal violence. Then the dangerous assumption they are positing is that the government, although it changes hands every four or two or six years will always be benign. Remember, the pendulum swings and the government you like today can be the tyrant who hates you, and your kind, tomorrow. Ask the Jewish people of WW2 Europe or the Armenians in Turkey or how about the Cambodians of the seventies if they thought their governing apparatus was going to turn on them lethally?
Do you want that tyrant to have a monopoly on lethal violence?
That is the very point of military style weapons in the hands of many many civilians, there will be no Holocaust of a disarmed minority if there is no monopoly. You want at least a duopoly on the use of lethal violence and yes, it is messy but there is no Utopia, and never will be. I think Samuel Butler called it Erewhon or Nowhere.

Also R.J. Rummel wrote a book, online called" Death by government" where he enumerates the 170 million deaths by government(he calls it Democide) in the 20th Century.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM