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The anti-gunners aren’t going to like this one. Support for stricter gun control laws has been declining over the past few years. But in 2022, it’s dropped even further, according to a brand spanking new Gallup poll.
This development is quite interesting, given the number of mass shootings that have occurred this year. Uvalde, Buffalo, and other high-profile atrocities received national media attention. The anti-gun left exploited each of these tragedies to push for stricter gun laws on law-abiding Americans. Indeed, Democrats, with the help of some Republicans, managed to pass a federal gun control measure in the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde.
Nevertheless, the tide continues to turn.Gallup reports:
Americans’ support for stricter U.S. gun laws has receded after sharply increasing in the wake of two mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, in the spring. Specifically, 57% of U.S. adults now think laws covering the sale of firearms should be made more strict, down from 66% in June. Still, current support is above the 52% measured in October 2021 and matches the 2020 reading.
The Oct. 3-20 Gallup poll finds another 32% of Americans saying gun laws should be kept as they are now, and 10% would like to see them made less strict.
Gallup has been tracking Americans’ attitudes on gun control since 1990. “Support for stricter laws has risen after some of the worst gun violence in U.S. history. These include mass shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999; Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012; a Las Vegas music festival in 2017; and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018,” according to the report.
Whenever there is a high-profile mass shooting, there is an increase in the percentage of Americans calling for more gun control measures. Much of this is due to the fact that Democrats and their comrades in the activist media use these events to foment fear of firearms. They assure the public that these incidents would magically decrease, if they imposed more legislation making it more difficult for law-abiding people to purchase and own guns.
The anti-gunner lobby rarely suggests other measures to protect people from gun violence. They focus on making it harder for people to defend themselves because their ultimate objective isn’t to limit gun violence. It is to ensure that fewer responsible Americans are armed.
Nevertheless, despite the upticks in support of gun laws that occur after a mass shooting, the number of people who believe these measures will protect them eventually declines. Moreover, the past two years have seen record-breaking numbers of gun sales nationwide.
An NBC News report published earlier in 2022 showed that “U.S. gun sales have almost doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic started, rising from an average of 1 million guns sold monthly in 2019 to nearly 2 million a month in 2020.”
People are using their dollars to show how they truly feel about gun ownership. As more Americans are becoming gun owners, it won’t be surprising to see this decline in support for restrictive laws continue–as more Americans realize that they are not going to save lives.
After the Supreme Court’s decision in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, it will now be easier for citizens to obtain firearms even in blue states, despite the best efforts of anti-gunner politicians who are enacting measures designed to subvert the ruling. While most Americans still indicate that they support more gun laws, the tide is shifting in favor of gun rights and will continue to do so.
