Pew First: Gun Rights Top Gun Control In Major Public Opinion Shift

[Purveyor]

Exactly two years after President Obama's bid for gun control following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting died in Congress, a new poll has discovered a huge shift in public opinion to backing Second Amendment gun rights and away from controlling gun ownership.

The reason: Americans now believe having a gun is the best way to protect against crime, 63 percent to 30 percent.

Pew Research Center found that while support for gun control once reached 66 percent, it has dropped to 46 percent while support for gun rights has jumped 52 percent, the highest ever in the past 25 years.

"We are at a moment when most Americans believe crime rates are rising and when most believe gun ownership – not gun control – makes people safer," said the survey.



To say the shift in opinion is radical is not an understatement. It follows a short period where Americans were torn over gun ownership, but eventually sided with gun rights groups during the Obama years.

more...

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pew-first-gun-rights-tops-gun-control-in-major-public-opinion-shift/article/2563304

[Eleanors38]

1. OH! let's put this in GD and see how long it lasts.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

2. IMHO, the shift is due at least in part to two things

1- Some organizations repulsing some people. (Think Bloomberg and Nugent)
2- Unprofessional conduct by the media. (One source parrots the inaccuracies and lies from another)

These issues spread confusion and are offensive.

[Politicalboi]

3. Sickening

When towns start looking like the middle east where every clown is armed, maybe then they'll see their mistake.

[friendly_iconoclast]

5. You seem not to have noticed the steep decline in violent crime rates in recent years

Or perhaps you have noticed, but are averse to guns.

[friendly_iconoclast]

6. I also take it you won't be visiting my neck of the woods anytime soon:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172165724

A gun license surge in Massachusetts

Don't worry, we'll do our best to carry on without you...

[Logical]

16. You are claiming this is because of people carrying concealed? nt

[friendly_iconoclast]

17. Not at all. This happened in spite of all the "blood in the streets" rhetoric from controllers

[MicaelS]

11. We have been hearing that same shit for years.

"There will rivers of blood in the street, bodies will be stacked up like cordwood."

The fact is most gun owners are responsible. Less that 1% cause problems.

[pablo_marmol]

14. We'd all be sickened by your detachment from reality, but we've grown accustomed to it. :-) NT

[NaturalHigh]

22. Sickening! Sickening I tell you!

Cool story bro. Of course, crime is down while pro-2nd Amendment sentiment is up. I haven't seen any rivers of blood in the streets yet.

[Eleanors38]

4. "news, reality, rhetoric:" The controllers have a role in this. A big one...

Lots of hand-wringing about violent crime, "gun crime," criminals with guns, etc., has contributed to the public perceptions of crime; in fact, controllers MUST make the case for out-of-control gun crime to make their case for controls. The result is a petard hoisting that reaches the epic level of a bad bean fart in a good VW. And this is fed right into the bleeds-it-leads MSM. SUCH a dynamic.

[pablo_marmol]

13. The law of unintended consequences bites restriction supporters HARD in the ass!! NT

[Shamash]

7. Here's the link to the prior survey

http://www.people-press.org/2014/12/10/growing-public-support-for-gun-rights/

This survey has come up before on DU (more than once), and every time certain commenters (who will not be named to protect their delicate feelings) sound like they fell out of the ignorance tree and were determined to hit every branch on the way down.

See also:
http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/26/typology-comparison/gun-policy/

[appal_jack]

8. Pew Pew Pew!

Sorry, someone had to do it...



-app

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

9. Thanks for your good work

[appal_jack]

12. I'll be here all week!

... er, probably longer given my DU history.



Be sure to tip the waitstaff...

-app

[appal_jack]

10. Pew First: ask questions later?

Last edited Mon Apr 20, 2015, 07:19 PM - Edit history (1)

This is just too good of a headline!

K&R for the actual topic,

-app

[NaturalHigh]

21. LOL...that is AWESOME!

[jimmy the one]

15. Gong. Wrong.

purveyor: Exactly two years after President Obama's bid for gun control following the Sandy Hook .. shooting died in Congress, a new poll has discovered a huge shift in public opinion to backing Second Amendment gun rights and away from controlling gun ownership.

A 'new poll'? it was released over 4 months ago, early dec 2014.
Better sit down, Purveyor, & GNs: The research group whose misleading poll question was heavily touted by the media to suggest "growing public support for gun rights" has acknowledged that the question was flawed.. the Pew Research Center released the results of a survey that asked respondents whether it is more important to "control gun ownership" or to "protect the right of Americans to own guns." The poll showed increased support for the gun rights answer and a drop in support for regulating guns.
... But academics from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research criticized the poll question.., saying that the query forces respondents to choose between two options that are not mutually exclusive and pointing out that polls consistently show broad public backing for specific gun regulations, such as expanding the background check system to make it more difficult for felons and the mentally ill to obtain weapons.
.. "Pew's question presents one side emphasizing the protection of individual rights versus restricting gun ownership. The question's implicit and incorrect assumption is that regulations of gun sales infringe on gun owners' rights and control their ability to own guns,." http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/12/19/pew-admits-flaw-in-poll-being-used-to-attack-st/201960

purveyor: The reason: Americans now believe having a gun is the best way to protect against crime, 63% to 30%.

Gong. Wrong. Non sequitur. Or at least I didn't see that in any poll. Can animals commit crime? Your link: the latest Gallup survey finds that 63% of Americans now say having a gun in the home makes it a safer place compared with 30% who say it makes a home more dangerous. Fifteen years ago, more said the presence of a gun made a home more dangerous (51%) than safer (35%).

survey, says: We are at a moment when most Americans believe crime rates are rising and when most believe gun ownership – not gun control – makes people safer," said the survey

In other words, those Americans are wrong on both counts.

[friendly_iconoclast]

18. Two words, an Internet meme, and a logical fallacy:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prolix


prolix

pro·lix

prō-lĭks?, prō?lĭks?
adj.
1. Tediously prolonged; wordy: editing a prolix manuscript.
2. Tending to speak or write at excessive length. See Synonyms at wordy.
[Middle English, from Old French prolixe, from Latin prōlixus, poured forth, extended.]

pro·lix?i·ty
pro-lĭk?sĭ-tē
pro·lix?ly adv.


pro•lix (proʊˈlɪks, ˈproʊ lɪks)
adj.
1. extended to unnecessary or tedious length; long and wordy.
2. (of a person) given to speaking or writing at great or tedious length.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bafflegab&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/bafflegab

baf·fle·gab
ˈbafəlˌɡab/
noun North American informal
noun: bafflegab

incomprehensible or pretentious language, especially bureaucratic jargon.
"the smooth chairman who had elevated bafflegab to an art form"

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/stop-liking-what-i-dont-like

About

“Stop Liking What I Don’t Like!” is an expression typically used to mock people
who seem to assert that something is bad,
often in when said remarks are in discussions where this person’s sentiment is in the minority.

In other words, those Americans are wrong on both counts.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Argument_by_assertion

Argument by assertion is the logical fallacy where someone tries to argue a point by merely asserting that it is true, regardless of contradiction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_assertion

Proof by assertion, sometimes informally referred to as proof by repeated assertion, is an informal fallacy in which a proposition is repeatedly restated regardless of contradiction.[1] Sometimes, this may be repeated until challenges dry up, at which point it is asserted as fact due to its not being contradicted (argumentum ad nauseam).[2] In other cases, its repetition may be cited as evidence of its truth, in a variant of the appeal to authority or appeal to belief fallacies

Austin J. Freeley, David L. Steinberg, Argumentation and Debate; Critical Thinking for Reasoned Decision Making (Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston, 2009), p. 196

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

19. Man: What? I came in here for an argument.

Mr Barnard: Oh, oh oh I'm sorry, this is "abuse'. You want Room 12-A just along the corridor.

Man: Oh sorry. Thank you very much, sorry, thank you.

(Shuts the door)

Man: Stupid git.

[beevul]

20. For some reason that brought this image to mind...

Anyway...Well said, and spot on.