New Poll: Lowest Ever Support for Semi-Auto Ban

This article originally appeared on the Second Amendment Foundation website here.

Amid the renewed clamor by anti-gunners for a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” the Second Amendment Foundation today pointed to a new Quinnipiac University poll showing public support for such a ban to be at an all-time low.

Support for a ban has fallen to 50 percent, while 45 percent oppose it, and according to the survey, “This is the lowest level of support among registered voters for a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons since February 2013 when the question was first asked by the Quinnipiac University Poll.” Four years ago, 67 percent supported a ban and 29 percent opposed the idea.

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said this is clear evidence the public is waking up to the reality that gun bans are not the answer to violent crime.

“Semiautomatic rifles have been around for more than a century,” Gottlieb noted, “and the popular AR-type rifles have been owned by private citizens for at least 60 years. Their use in crime is statistically minimal, so to blame their availability and demonize their technology is a false flag that borders on fraud.

“Increasing numbers of people realize there is far more to this dilemma than firearms,” he added. “For example, the same Quinnipiac poll shows a 40 percent plurality of voters think the real problem is rooted in mental health issues, more than twice the 19 percent who think the availability of firearms is at the core of the current crime spike.

“And don’t overlook political bias,” Gottlieb added. “Quinnipiac found that Democrats by a 91-8 margin want stricter gun laws, while Republicans by a 64-32 percent margin oppose stricter laws. Party affiliation clearly is a factor in whether one is guided by a knee-jerk dislike for firearms, or by common sense and rational analysis.

“The annual FBI Uniform Crime Report has consistently shown that rifles of any kind are involved in a fraction of all homicides in any given year,” he said. “Only 2 to 4 percent of all murders are committed with rifles, so this push to demonize and ban an entire class of rifles is not simply wrong, it borders on being delusional, and it is certainly dishonest.”