With a title of Over half of both Second Amendment supporters and Republicans favor universal background checks and gun licensing provisions
—Poll: A majority of Americans support universal background checks, gun licensing and an assault weapons ban, APM Research Lab, (last visited Jul. 30, 2023) I had to look deeper. The first thing to know is that this was conducted by a group associated with the U. Penn. It could be a left leaning entity, I’ve not done the research.
—MOTN-May23-transparency-disclosure-and-methods, (last visited Jul. 30, 2023)
YouGov is a site where you can sign up to be paid to take surveys. This means that the bias for the survey is internet savvy. Not a bad bias.
So let’s look at the questions that were asked:
- Below are several actions that Congress might take related to guns. Would you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose this action?
- Require background checks for all firearm sales and transfers
- Ban the sale and private ownership of semi-automatic firearms referred to as assault weapons
- Require gun owners to take a test, get a license, and register their firearms just like they do for their automobiles
- Eliminate most current gun laws in order to protect Second Amendment rights
- You said you support efforts to [fill in with policy that the respondent strongly supports, randomly assigning in the case of more than one, or randomly choosing from among somewhat supports if no options were strongly supported]. Can you explain why?
What we see isn’t horrible. Unfortunately, it lacks context.
Consider the question of background checks. The people giving this survey do not get to explain. When I hear “background checks for all firearm sales and transfers” it might mean universal background checks. Or it could mean “transfers at the time of sale” and I might even think of it as when buying from an FFL.
Given that the only reason that there is a background check is the GCA as amended, a background check is not constitutional.
Question B is at least attempting to be honest. They have explicitly stated that they are talking about the banning of semi-automatic firearms. They didn’t just say “Assault Weapons.”
C is just plain scary. I know that most of us want gun owners to train and learn what they are doing. To be good members of the community. Requiring tests and licenses for both firearm and person is bull shit.
Let’s take a look at two categories.
81% of males support universal background checks, 66% support test, license and registration, 55% support “assault weapon ban” and 48% support eliminating most gun laws.
The sample size is 1000. 468 of which were male. They fudge those numbers to make it 487 to match the actual percentage of men and women in the country. 394 of 487 support UBC. 321 of 487 support Test, License, Registration. 267 of 487 support “assault weapons ban”, and 234 of 487 support eliminating most gun laws.
Ok, the takeaway on this survey eludes me. It looks like there is good support for the Second Amendment, but there is also support for infringements. This feels like people avoiding absolutism. Hagar answers, “What part of shall not infringe, don’t you understand?”
I am also an absolutist, I just am not as vocal about it. I don’t know.
Regardless, my rights, and yours, do not come from surveys or opinions. Our rights are protected by the Bill of Rights. We are endowed with them by our creator.
What it says to me, is that most people really don’t understand what they are being asked about. If you’ve never bought a gun, for instance, then you very likely won’t even think about the implications of what a “universal background check” might be or how it would have to work.
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Along with being educated on the topic the question addresses, how the question is phrased matters. A lot. This comes up when discussing polling of red flag laws, for instance. Seems once people understand it means due process is eliminated, they flip from supporting to not.
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But in the end, it really comes down to gun control being, in general, unconstitutional. It doesn’t matter how you feel about guns, it’s what is. This can be changed, but will take modifying the Constitution itself to make it actually legal.
These sections of the questions posed, discredit the poll due to gross ambiguity:
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semi-automatic firearms referred to as assault weapons—“referred to”…by whom, in what instance, within what context etc. The level of subjectivity is off the charts and unable to be quantified accurately.
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just like they do for their automobiles—the entire example is misleading, insinuating that firearms and automobiles are comparable when it comes to legal regulations. One is a Constitutional Right, the other is not.
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Eliminate most current gun laws in order to protect Second Amendment rights—“most” is what exactly? The meaning is undefinable. “…in order to protect 2nd Amendment rights, also could mean several things due to all the interpretations of the amendment such as the definitions of Militia, The People, Keep, Bear, Infringe, just to name the most debated terms. Just how many definitions of Rights are there in the debate ring?
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If you put all the people who participated in this poll in a room and asked them to come up with one agreed upon definition as to what each poll questions asked, I’ll bet you you’d have to call 911.
Near side of 50 and I’ve only been contacted by Pew a few times and have never responded. The same goes for the majority of firearm owners I know.
For some strange reason, it seems that gun owners, in recent decades, have been ever more reluctant to talk with random callers about their guns.
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Whyever could that be?
and if you look at their ‘gun deaths in the US’ chart, it starts spiking in 2014 following the Furguson riots/defund police movement, levels off during the early Trump years, and then spikes again following the Floyd/BLM riots.