BELLEVUE, WA – A new Gallup survey showing that a majority of Americans now oppose a ban on so-called “assault weapons” could not have come at a better time, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.
“The new Gallup poll shows that 57 percent of Americans do not support a ban on semi-automatic rifles, which have been deliberately mislabeled as ‘assault rifles,’” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “It’s a complete turnaround since 1996, and we think it’s because Americans have wised up to the rhetoric of the gun ban lobby as so much hot air when it comes to actually preventing violent crime.”
The FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2017 once again confirmed that rifles of any kind are used in 2-to-3 percent of all the homicides in the United States. The Gallup survey results suggest that more people are beginning to understand that banning certain firearms is not a viable solution to crime.
The Gallup survey was conducted Oct. 1-10, and the results were revealed a few days ago. Only 40 percent of Americans still support a ban on modern semi-auto rifles, the survey revealed.
“Right now in Washington State,” Gottlieb noted, “voters are considering a ballot measure that would ban the ownership of all semiautomatic rifles by young adults in the 18-to-20 age group. This proposal is being touted by the gun prohibition lobby as a way to prevent mass shootings and suicides, but it is really a gun registration scheme that discriminates against young Americans who can vote, join the military and even get married, but they are not considered mature enough to own firearms for hunting, recreation or personal protection.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Gallup poll also revealed that “Democrats have been more supportive than Republicans of a ban on semi-automatic guns.” Indeed, Democrats are more than twice as likely (56%) than Republicans (25%) to support a ban, the survey found. Only 38 percent of independents would support such a ban.
“Millions of law-abiding American citizens own semi-automatic rifles and shotguns for all kinds of purposes and they have harmed nobody,” Gottlieb observed. “Maybe the Gallup results are simply affirming what we’ve known all along. Guns aren’t the problem; criminals are the problem.”