A recent PEW poll shows a majority of people support gun rights over gun control.

[flamin lib]

53 to 46%.



However the very same polling firm shows very strong support for actual gun control policies;



How can this be? PEW has been asking the same questions with the same wording for decades so how can support for both gun control and gun rights be explained?

PEW attempts to give perspective in this response to criticism: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/09/a-public-opinion-trend-that-matters-priorities-for-gun-policy/

The thing that struck me was the heightened polarity on the topic, particularly in the political arena. Since the NRA became a gun sales tool instead of a gun safety and training organization the response to any policy change has been an absolute stone wall. Want background checks? NO! It's a step to confiscation. Want tagants in explosives? NO! It's a step to confiscation. Want anything at all? NO! It's a step to confiscation.

The response to everything is the same: they want to take all the guns away.

Faced with that as a choice; gun control of any kind = take all the guns, most people will want to protect gun rights. I would if that were the only choice. The NRA, as chief advocate for the gun lobby, has successfully sold that concept to the public. Like the ACA that is popular but Obamacare isn't.

Advertising works and since 1977 the gun lobby has been selling this absolutism. The truth is that the public wants to limit who can have access to guns if it a reasonable limitation. Should people on the terrorist watch list be able to buy guns? Should people with a restraining order against a spouse have guns? Should all people buying guns have a background check? Should there be a limit on the size of magazines?

All reasonable and all opposed by the gun lobby because it's a slippery slope to confiscation.

[elleng]

1. Depends on phrasing of the questions, obviously.

[flamin lib]

3. True, but PEW isn't known for push polling.

Sometimes the environment changes and the questions, although the same as before, elicit a different response.


That is what I believe has happened in this case.

[elleng]

5. Right, they're not,

but I seem to recall an 'apology' from them lately re: phrasing of a poll. They acknowledged their error.

Of course the environment changes, too.

[upaloopa]

2. What percentage of adults in this country who legally can own

guns, do?
Also what type of guns do they own? And for what purpose do they own guns.
I think the right to own guns is not in question in the minds of most people and most people do not wish to put roadblocks in the way to owning guns.
But I think the majority do not own guns and the majority would like to see a minimum of deaths by guns in this country. I think the debate on gun ownership is mostly toward the fringe of either side.
Anyway that is the way it looks to me.

[flamin lib]

7. I believe that the current household ownership rate is between 35 & 40%.

The largest percentage by type are rifles and are for recreational use. The second largest type are handguns and they are owned for self defense.

There has been a recent bump in households with guns but the trend over the last 30 years is downward. The average age of gun owners in increasing, a fact not lost on the gun lobby hence the marketing of guns to children as young as 6.

Yes the loudest voices are on the fringe but the vast majority of reasonable people want restrictions on who can buy guns while protecting the right of the truly law respecting to have them.

At present the NRA and gun lobby own Washington D.C. so the current direction for the gun safety movement is to the states, bypassing the gun lobby. The NRA is responding with a similar strategy. However, in states that have referendums that go directly to the public, the gun lobby has no real power and the voices of the reasonable middle are heard.

[Proud Public Servant]

4. Poll choice is ludicrous

"Controlling Gun Ownership" and "Protecting the Rights of Gun Owners" are not concepts on opposition to each other.

[elleng]

6. Absolutely.

[Scuba]

8. To me the frightening part is that so many gun owners believe the confiscation conspiracies.

That such paranoid individuals make up such a large portion of gun owners is scary.

[billh58]

9. Paranoid yes, but

I believe that they are being willfully ignorant about "confiscation" so as to rant and rail against any and all forms of gun control. "Cold dead hands" Second Amendment absolutists will accept no form of gun control legislation, and sincerely believe that the Tree of Liberty should be watered with (innocent) blood from time-to-time, and is a small price to pay for Freedom.

[Scuba]

10. One strain does not rule out the other. Both are being manipulated. I can't open a YouTube ....

... video or humor list without being asked if Americans should oppose President Obama's crusade to take all our guns. Meanwhile it's never reported anywhere that nobody has done a fucking thing to restrict gun ownership in decades.

[jimmy the one]

11. pew backtracked, & I like this other pew poll better

A recent PEW poll shows a majority of people {53% - 46%} support gun rights over gun control

It's one poll from a reputable pollster, would need corroboration for me from another reputable pollster, to evade the MOE & outlying the 95% confidence level.
Furthermore, as ally Fred Sanders posted on RKBA, Pew has backtracked on this poll (tho I have reservations on it, the wording should be fairly clear to those except for newbies, & it is up from previous pew polls with exact same wording).

... 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. The results were reported by numerous media outlets, especially by the conservative press.
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... http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/12/19/pew-admits-flaw-in-poll-being-used-to-attack-st/201960

furtherfurthermore, if gunnuts are gonna tout this 'progun' pew survey, shouldn't they give this pew survey on declining gun ownership credibility too? which is corroborated by GSS:

[flamin lib]

12. Unfortunately there is a natural inborn tendency to seek out and embrace

that which reinforces already held beliefs. We all do it, be we gun safety advocates or gun rights advocates.

It's very difficult to get past the extremes of either side. A tiny part of the Gun Safety movement want all guns destroyed without exception and an equally small part of the gun rights movement cite them as reason to oppose EVERYTHING that might lessen gun violence.

Slippery slope

Camel's nose under the tent

Give an inch

I honestly don't know how to get past that.