By Robert Farago via The Truth About Guns
That’s the question Gallup put to 1,015 adults in a poll whose results were released yesterday. And the survey said! Fifty-six percent answered yes, 41 percent said no, three percent said “say what?” It’s something of a shame that the pollsters added the bit about a criminal background check and training course. Those two requirements are a clear infringement on Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. And don’t do a thing to increase “gun safety.” Still, the “feel good” caveats yielded the above result, which should get the anti-gun rights folks sweating bullets. Well, it would if . . .
they didn’t ignore it. Which, of course, they will. As will the mainstream media, the same folks who promoted the hell out of a different result in a different question in the same poll, regarding “stricter gun laws.”
In any case, Gallup’s pro-concealed carry stat is BIG news. Handgun sales outpaced long guns sales about five years ago and never looked back. The NSSF reports that “self-defense” accounts for more than sixty percent of new gun sales.
Drilling down, the news is downright exhilarating.
“Safer” wins amongst men and women. (Take that Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.) And wouldn’t you know it, support for concealed carry is stronger amongst younger people than older folks. (Take that Adam “The NRA Is Doomed” Winkler.) Again, all groups support concealed carry. Now, check this out:
Huh. Post-graduates – and post-graduates alone – are against concealed carry. This certainly accounts for – well, highlights – university teachers’ and administrators’ opposition to campus carry. Did I say alone? There’s one more group that said “nay” to concealed carry making the country safer. Can you guess? As Mister Rogers famously pronounced, sure you can!
If presidential candidate Hillary Clinton plans on “moving to the center” on gun rights after the clinching the Democratic nomination (should she get that far), the former First Lady better hope another Kardashian kerfuffle distracts voters from her recent anti-gun pandering. Just saying. And here’s the kicker:
Interesting. Non-gun owners support for concealed carry is within the margin or error. Same for big city and suburban residents (who likely account for the majority of the non-gun owning opponents). In other words, the antis are losing the battle “even” amongst voters who don’t own guns and/or live in Democrat strongholds. As they say, there’s everything to play for.
Taken as a whole, seen in context with the reported majority support for “stricter gun laws,” it’s safe to conclude that most Americans believe that guns are a good thing, not a bad thing (in the hands of law-abiding Americans). They also believe the antis’ constant refrain that “sensible gun safety laws” are a good thing, not a bad thing. Slippery slope to tyranny or not, the NRA, NSSF et al. are going with that flow, still talking about “fixing NICS” rather than restoring gun rights to their original, uninfringed status.
I reckon the pro-gun rights side has lost the cultural battle on gun control as a thing. Ground can be reclaimed – is being reclaimed – by the pro-2A side on the state level, what with concealed carry, campus carry and open carry making progress throughout the heartland (e.g., Illinois and Texas). That said, the antis have turned the screws on restrictions in several states (e.g., Colorado, Connecticut and New York) since Newtown.
Bottom line: more Americans are going hands-on with a firearm than ever before, rejecting the antis’ argument that a concealed carry gun makes you – and society – less safe. Will most of these newbies vote their guns when the anti-gun rights statists state? Count on it. And do everything you can to introduce a fence-straddler or anti-gun rights voter to a personal defense handgun.
