Gun Control Laws: After Sandy Hook, Poll Finds Bump In Support For Greater Restrictions

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

Immediately following the devastating school shooting Friday in Newtown, Conn., a new poll suggests a bump in support for stricter gun laws, with half of Americans saying they support making the nation's gun laws stricter.

The new HuffPost/YouGov survey found that 50 percent of Americans say gun laws should be made more strict than they are now, compared to 43 percent who said that they should remain the same (29 percent) or be made less strict (14 percent). The poll also found support for banning semi-automatic weapons (51 percent to 33 percent) as well as magazine clips holding more than 10 rounds (54 percent to 32 percent).

The main weapon used by shooter Adam Lanza was a semiautomatic assault rifle, and he carried several high capacity magazines, though that information had not been released while the poll was being fielded. On Saturday White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters that reinstating the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 "does remain a commitment" of President Barack Obama. On Sunday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced that she would be introducing a new assault weapons ban bill on the first day of the new Congress.

The poll found little sympathy for the argument frequently made by gun rights advocates that Americans would be better protected by more, rather than fewer, guns. Forty-six percent of Americans said that stricter gun control laws and enforcements were most likely to lead to fewer mass shootings, while only 34 percent said that allowing more private citizens to carry guns for protection would be the more protective measure.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/gun-control-laws-sandy-hook-poll_n_2309324.html

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The tipping point is tipping faster.

[askeptic]

1. Killing the gun owner and taking their guns addressed with gun control?

I don't think so -- If you can tell me how this was a failure of our current gun control laws, please explain.

Just exploiting the situation because it is so easy to manipulate the people...

[DanTex]

2. Thankfully, according to this poll you are in the minority.

I think most people look at the epidemic levels of gun violence in the US, and then look to places like Canada, UK, Australia, etc. where there are tighter laws, fewer guns, and far less killing, and understand that we have a gun problem in this country.

[askeptic]

3. You didn't answer the question - which law failed?

..and you are hopelessly deluded if you think you are going to change Constitution to be like UK - polls or not

[DanTex]

4. It's hard to say with certainty that any specific law would prevent any specific shooting.

What we can say is that tighter gun laws overall will reduce easy gun availability and thus reduce the amount of gun violence going forward. If you believe that lax gun laws have nothing to do with the epidemic rates of gun violence in the US, then you are the one who is hopelessly deluded.

[askeptic]

6. Huffpost's poll, from what I read, is not a scientific poll --

Clicking on a multi-choice response, by those who want to and who come to huffpost, seems to miss a large number that would likely not agree

[DanTex]

7. Actually, yes it was.

The did a scientific poll and also an internet poll. Obviously, the internet poll is not scientific, but the poll results from the story are from the scientific poll.

[Remmah2]

5. Two wolves and a sheep vote on what's for dinner.

Sort a rough on the minority.

[primavera]

8. Quite right - EXISTING gun control laws are nowhere near strict enough

Hence the need for stricter gun control laws.

[onehandle]

9. The kid used a military weapon of mass destruction.

To most people, that was what it was.

Don't bother to 'correct me.'

Welcome to ignore. Your fetish is ending.

[askeptic]

10. I definitely wouldn't want to force you to think

and I could give a fuck if you ignore people you disagree with -- If all liberals were like you I wouldn't be one -- I still appreciate the right to think and debate. Not much room to talk about the fantasies of others if the fantasy is that everyone is wrong who disagrees with you

[primavera]

11. That cuts both ways

That anyone who disagrees with you must surely be wrong is a sentiment widely seen in the gun community as well, which suffers no challenge to its basic starting assumptions. Debate is a fine thing, but debates generally have winners and losers. In this instance, it may well be gun advocates who lose the debate. Will you accept defeat as graciously as you would wish other liberals to if you were to win out in this debate?

[askeptic]

13. Where have I taken a position? Just sayin' I'd like to know which law failed

So by taking that side of the argument, a whole lot of assumptions are made, aren't they?

Can we quit assuming that anyone asking for thinking on the subject should be shut down? Or that they advocate assault weapons for all just because they don't jump on the bandwagon?

[primavera]

14. Go back and re-read your posts

You've taken a number of positions, among them that the results of the poll are questionable, insinuating that a majority of Americans may not support stronger gun control legislation; that the US Constitution supports an inalienable right to keep and bear arms, regardless of what public opinion might favor; that critics of our gun-centric culture are some sort of intellectual vigilantes who disapprove of thinking; and that the incident in question does not demonstrate a failure of existing gun control laws. All of those are debatable positions.

I grant you, though, gun advocates seem to have risen to the top of the public's most wanted list at the moment. I think that's understandable since there are compelling arguments to be made that gun advocates inadvertently have contributed to the culture that generates these sorts of tragedies, but I agree that it's not particularly commendable.

[WooWooWoo]

12. 50 percent isn't exactly a tipping point

especialy after a national tragedy. Gun control, as a political issue, was much more popular in 1990 than it is today.

Not to say that's right, just the facts.

[bucolic_frolic]

15. There was a movement to ban

machine guns after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Why can't they do something about these assault rifles
and high capacity clips?

We ban sawed off shotguns and silencers.

Cities routinely collect unregistered firearms as part
of an amnesty program.

So techniques and strategies can be made to work.

[Xithras]

16. One very, very simple law could have prevented this shooting.

Any firearm not immediately under your control should be locked up. ALWAYS.

This guy killed his mom and took her guns. A simple, cheap set of trigger locks could have prevented this whole damned thing.

And requiring it wouldn't step on ANYBODY's rights.

I own firearms. All of them are locked up unless I'm carrying them for some reason. Not taking that one simple step should be a serious crime.

[sir pball]

18. Assuming he didn't know where the keys were

I know where the keys are and the combinations to all of my dad's safes. The weapons are very securely stored (the safes are currently in a storage unit, behind another lock and a keycoded gate), but I, the non-owner, have access to them as well.

Maybe NFA-style access-controlled storage?

edit
speeling

[geek tragedy]

17. Only 50%? That is very much discouraging.

In a week or two, that number will be back down to 40%.

[AllyCat]

19. Bump? Should be freakin' mountain, but we'll take what we can get.

With what other problem in society does having MORE of the problem create less of the problem? We don't give drug addicts MORE of the drug as they try to become less dependent on it. If you have diabetes, you don't eat MORE carbohydrate, you eat less. If you have a problem pulling speeding tickets, increasing your speed does not make you less likely to get more speeding tickets (not to mention accidents).

If we have a gun problem, we need fewer of them and actual regulation of our "well-regulated" militia.