The latest Gallup poll on gun control issues has revealed two important factors, which may explain why the results didn’t get much media coverage: 89 percent of Democrats want tougher gun laws and fewer Democrats own guns now than they did during the period of 2007-2012.
Translation: When it comes to Second Amendment rights, Democrats are increasingly out of touch with other Americans.
The survey, taken early in October, shows support for a ban on handguns—except for the police and military—is near an all-time low. It also revealed that support for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” has lost ground as well.
Compared with 2019, support for an assault weapons ban is lower among Republicans (27%) and independents (50%),” Gallup said. “Meanwhile, Democrats (82%) steadily and broadly favor a ban on semiautomatic guns.”
And Fox News Digital is reporting that gun ownership demographics is showing a “notable change” in who owns guns.
According to the Gallup survey, while an overwhelming majority of Democrats support stricter gun laws, 56 percent of Independents and only 25 percent of Republicans do.
“Democrats’ backing for tougher gun laws has ranged from 85% to 94% since 2017,” said Gallup, “while Republicans’ and Independents’ have been significantly lower. Republicans’ current reading is essentially the same as the group’s 22% record low in 2020.”
Another Gallup revelation is that “A 59% majority of Republicans favor keeping firearms sales laws as they are now, while 15% prefer less strict laws. In addition to the majority of Independents who back stricter gun laws, 31% would like to see them kept the same and 12% support stricter laws.”
This correlates with a notation in the Fox News report: “Republicans are currently 1.5 times more likely than non-Republicans to own a gun, and Democrats are 1.3 times less likely than non-Democrats to own a gun.”
The survey also shows more Republican men are likely to own guns (60%) while only 29 percent of male Democrats own firearms. Among Independents, 39 percent of men are gun owners, Gallup reported.
While 52 percent of all Americans still favor a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” Gallup noted, “support is significantly lower now than it was in Gallup’s initial reading in 2019 (61%) and is down slightly from 55% in 2022.”
And here’s something else they probably won’t be discussing on “The View.” Gallup said more Republican women now own guns (33%) than they did during the period of 2007-2012 (19%).
The overall number of Americans who support stricter gun control laws has remained stable over the past three years, at 56 percent, according to Gallup.
Was this a factor in the recent presidential election outcome? That may be hard to say, although Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, believes it did. In a statement to the media, after Donald Trump won a second term in the White House beginning next Jan. 20, Gottlieb maintained, “America’s gun owners saw the threat of a Kamala Harris presidency and took action. Millions of ‘gun voters’ turned out to reverse the nation’s course on firearms rights and keep Kamala out of the Oval Office.
“In this election,” Gottlieb observed, “the Democrats shot blanks and the voters buried their gun ban agenda.”
Further cementing the Democrat disconnect is the result of a new Rasmussen survey showing a majority of Democrat voters say Harris is the overwhelming favorite to be the party leader, with 54 percent considering her better than others, including 20 percent who say Joe Biden as the better leader, ahead of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (11%) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (5%).”
According to Gallup’s report, the polling firm “has measured public support for a ban on handguns since 1980 and, before that, had asked a similar question about ‘a law which would forbid the possession’ of ‘pistols and revolvers.’”
Gallup adds, “Support for banning the ownership of handguns by unauthorized people peaked at 60% in 1959, the initial reading. Since then, support has never risen to the majority level and has been consistently below 30% since 2008, including the current near-record low.
“The decline in support for a handgun ban this year is largely owed to Democrats,” Gallup explained, “whose backing has fallen by 16 points since 2023 to 33% — a new low — after the group showed increasing support for a ban the prior two years.”
Could Democrats actually be moderating their position on guns? Most likely not, considering the majority think Harris is their new party leader, and fewer Democrats are gun owners than they were a decade ago. With Republicans now set to control Congress and the White House, they have at least two years to accomplish two important things: Adopt better gun laws or repeal bad ones, and appoint more conservative/pro-Second Amendment judges to fill federal court vacancies, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
About Dave Workman
