The horrific massacre of 26 people, including 20 children between the ages of 6 and 8 years old have apparently changed the mind of many Americans when it comes to stricter gun laws. The weapon that was used by Adam Lanza was a semi-auto assault rifle, and the clips held quite a bit of ammo. Now, as Democrats introduce a new ban on these types of firearms, a new gun control poll may show that Americans are finally coming around.
While there are many people out there that claim that stricter gun control laws will actually contribute to the problem rather than solve it, it is a most ridiculous stance to take, particularly since the ban is regarding assault weapons. While there may be some truth to the fact that an armed citizen could possibly stop a crazed gunman before tragedy happens, a ban on assault rifles simply wouldn't make any difference on that issue at all. The real reason that opponents oppose the ban is that they simply want to buy and own any type of gun that they want, even if it gives people like Adam Lanza access to those weapons too.
The poll was conducted by YouGov and Huffington Post, and showed that more than half of all Americans (51%) believe that gun controls should be stricter, and when it came to HuffPost readers, that percentage was 84 percent. Those that said that gun laws should remain the same totaled only 28 percent at the time of this writing, and 14% somehow thought that gun controls should be less strict than they are now.
Last time this poll was conducted was in August, and only 44 percent of Americans supported making gun laws stricter, while 47 percent wanted gun laws to remain the same or be less strict. Apparently, all the tragedies in the past couple of years have made some people reevaluate their stance in this gun control poll and decide that they would rather give up the freedom of owning a weapon that is wholly unnecessary for anything except use in a war zone in favor of a few lives saved. That's a good choice.
Photo: YouGov/Huffington Post
Gabriel Legend covers current events for Gather News, and writes horror fiction. If you like an article from Gabriel please share it using the social media links below. Follow Gabriel Legend on Twitter (@GabeLegend).
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Comments: 49
To me the most telling is the fact that the USA has both the highest rate of gun ownership and of gun violence in the industrialized world. One claim made by the pro-gun enthusiasts is that an armed society is a polite society. This is not immediately evident in the USA.
Why don't you just stay in Montreal where it is safe...
In my past travels south of the 49th I've found Americans to be friendly, garrulous, open, but with the exception of Minnesota not overly polite.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/pain-continues-after-war-for-american-drone-pilot-a-872726.html
Well...it is also YouGov, one of the premiere online survey sites with ratings as high as 100%!
IMO, your point is correct on the truthfulness of reporting between Fox News and The Huffington Post. The editor of H.P., Arianna Huffington, has herself, written several commentary columns in which she chastised Democrats in general and President Obama in particular, for what they did, did not do, opposed, proposed and/or supported. Further, both she and other H.P. columnist and reporters have also appeared on several television networks over the past two years speaking on current issues. Media appearances during which they voiced their independent opinions without regard to who or what political party they were expressing fault with.
However, you missed Jo Jo's point, which was, the N.Z. Doll spoke denoting her personal displeasure with the Huffington Post and he was just yapping his support in response of her posted comment. It's a leg humping thing with her small group of rightwing friends. Individually, they rarely have an opinion of their own, mostly posting oneliner sarcastic remarks to written opinions and commentaries posted by Liberal GN members. But, when the Doll speaks, they will quickly climb over each other to post a supportive remark in order please their chosen Disingenuous Mistress, seeking to get an atta boy pat on the head of approval from her.
When in reality stricter gun laws and regulations will do nothing but strip the constitutional rights to bear arm from law abiding citizens.
People who can't get guns legally, as in the case of the CT shooter, he got them via other means, stole them from his mother, after he killed her, if that didn't work he would have gotten them via other illegal means, or he would have found a different way to carry out his plot.
They, and their readers, tend to be very critical of Obama on many fronts. They just don't go in for calling him Kenyan born, socialist, communist, fascist, Muslim or any of the silly, racist epithets popular on the right.
I am not trying to minimize the horror of Newtown, but how many years ago was Columbine? and is it okay to murder a bunch of people as long as they are all over age ten?
Yes, they had the nerve to take this poll immediately following this unprecedented massacre of so many young children in the confines of a school in this country. If you think this poll is representative of the population, it isn't. Only people with absolutely no care for anything but themselves and their politics would even consider answering to a poll like this immediately following that event. The only people who would are heartless monsters, the very kind who should not have guns in their possessions so that's the population from which this sample comes. I agree that most of this population shouldn't have guns. When the 2nd amendment was passed, we didn't have this same kind of society. Most of the people on this page I wouldn't trust with a box of toothpicks.
I said that anyone who would make this a political issue "immediately following the devastating school shooting Friday" does not represent a legitimate sample of a population to be an accurate poll because anyone with any kind of understanding of the impact of such an horrendous crime would not be willing to make a political statement immediately following that tragedy. Since you didn't get that, I can only assume you would have been one of those willing to respond to the poll and will thus not be capable of understanding a word of what I wrote.