How Do The Polls Stack Up On Support For Universal Background Checks?
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago
Read this article carefully.
Despite this slight downward trend, expanding background checks still enjoys 93 percent support in the latest poll. That support has remained relatively consistent, with the Quinnipiac poll finding the same level of support in June 2016 as in August 2019 and the ABC/Washington Post poll finding the same level of support in May 1999 as in September 2019.
As I said, carefully. I’ve always told you this was a load of crap, and the author, Stephen Gutowski, does a good job of showing why.
However, while expanding background checks to cover intrastate used gun sales between private individuals has enjoyed consistently high support in polling, it has been far less popular when proposed as ballot initiatives.
Both Nevada and Maine voted on universal background check initiatives in 2016. While Quinnipiac polls put support for the policy at 93 percent in June 2016, neither initiative came anywhere close to that level of support. Nevada’s initiative passed with only 50.45 percent support—a victory of 0.9 percent. Maine’s universal background check initiative failed, with 51.8 percent voting against it.
Nevada’s initiative, which required the FBI to conduct background checks on private sales, was never implemented. The state attorney general determined there was no way for Nevada to force the federal agency to conduct the checks. Instead, Nevada Democrats passed a similar bill along party lines this year that implemented universal background checks without using the problematic language.
The results came despite gun control proponents massively outspending gun rights proponents in both states. Gun control groups involved in the races spent a total of $25,373,391.76 while gun rights groups spent $7,898,134.10—a threefold advantage for the gun control groups.
So what you’ve learned isn’t just that the statists want you separated from your firearms. You already knew that. They fear you, and thus they want you unarmed. What you’ve learned is that they’re lying when they tell you that 93% of the American public wants you disarmed and wants a national registry of guns.
And also what you’ve learned is that when these pollsters and the democrats try to sell that to Trump, they’re trying to separate him from his voting base for the upcoming election. Whether Trump, who believes in literally nothing at all, believes this crap polling remains to be seen, 3D chess and all that claptrap from the fanbois.
On September 11, 2019 at 5:48 am, ragman said:
Trump has surrounded himself with the worst advisers imaginable. Starting with his daughter and Kushner. They are New York communists, pure and simple. However, if he really wants a second term, he knows that his base consists of many one issue voters. And that issue is the Second Amendment. One more misstep and he is done. Like the Captain says, we shall see.
On September 11, 2019 at 10:14 am, John Taylor said:
I give no credibility to any article that does not allow comments. Not that it would help to attempt to provide a logical argument in a comment logically anyway.
The notion of having a “serious conversation” about “common sense gun safety” is absurd on its face, since no actual conversation ever takes place, and the dearth of common sense in the screeds of the hoplophobes is truly breathtaking.
On September 11, 2019 at 2:35 pm, Frank Clarke said:
Trump is already done. He doesn’t have to lose very much of the 120million+ gun owners to reverse what happened in 2016. If National GOP sees this, they may get behind Bill Weld, and then it won’t matter the party of the next President unless it’s Libertarian.
On September 17, 2019 at 3:50 am, Dan said:
I don’t give a red rats ass what ANY “poll” says. NONE of them can be trusted. The ENTIRE rationale behind “polling” is NOT to gather data but
to mold public opinion. ALL of the major polling operations SWORE NONSTOP for weeks right up till election day that Cankles The Killer was a shoe in to win the White House. And ALL of them were wrong. Anyone who makes any decisions whatsoever based upon results of a “poll” would
be an abject moron.