A recent Associated Press Poll that says most Americans support stricter gun laws leaves much unsaid. It is, in my opinion, just more propaganda by the anti-gun left.
Who was polled? I wasn’t. Were any of our readers? Do our readers even know anyone who was polled?
In many cases, pollsters no longer seek to find the truth. They steer their polls to get the results they want or the results the person paying for the poll wants.
In this case, I suspect the AP cold-called a bunch of urban area liberals, say 500 people in Chicago or San Francisco. I doubt they polled in rural New York or in so-called fly over country.
Also, how many people were polled? If I wanted to steer a poll to get the results I wanted, I could find 100 people who like pineapple on their pizza and announce that a majority of Americans like pineapple on pizza, which may or may not be true.
The media ignores the fact that firearms in the home and on a person have stopped thousands of crimes every year. But then again, you can’t control the masses if they are armed.
Using the shooting in New Zealand is just another way to not waste a tragedy. America can’t just blanket issue a gun ban without losing who we are and who we were set up to be by our founding fathers. Knee-jerk reactions are often just jerk reactions and solve nothing. I pity the Kiwis for allowing their government to just blanket ban “military style” rifles. Would the victims be more or less dead if the weapon used was a shotgun or a bomb or an airplane?
If all these gun laws worked we wouldn’t have mass shootings or any crimes with firearms, but criminals don’t follow laws, that’s why they are criminals. In addition, if the already 20,000 federal, state and local gun laws worked, we wouldn’t need more gun laws. So the push for more and stricter gun laws, when the rest have pretty much failed, isn’t about safety or protecting lives. It’s about control.
Laws, in all actuality, only work on people who follow them. Al Capone, MS13 and drug cartels certainly don’t fear new gun laws they won’t follow, and probably welcome them because they weaken the citizens’ right to self-defense.
Getting back to the poll, these are the same people who said Hillary Clinton would have a historic win over President Donald Trump in 2016. These polls also said GOP Gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro was closing the gap between himself and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Remember that?
These polls tend to shape their questions to get the responses they want.
Instead of asking ‘Do you support stronger gun laws?’ they can ask “In light of the mass shooting in New Zealand, do you support stricter safety measures on firearms?”.
I was polled by telephone several years ago during a presidential primary season and was asked who I supported? I said Ron Paul and the woman said to me “That’s not an option in this survey.” I told her I supported Paul and if he is not an option, don’t ask who I support. When she said the poll only has a few candidate options, I ended the conversation.
If you think polls are fair and accurate, ask former Libertarian Gubernatorial Candidate Larry Sharpe. He rightly noted that polls are paid for by someone, usually a candidate or so-called public interest group. If polls were accurate, or even really mattered anymore, Thomas Dewey and Hillary Clinton would have been president.
I’ve come to believe none of the polls I see unless they also note who they polled, where and how many. I also prefer to see how the questions were worded.
In the end, it doesn’t matter because no one is taking my firearms without my agreement. I am reminded of Benjamin Franklin’s quote about safety and liberty.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety,” Franklin said. I won’t give up my liberties or my security. Without one, the other is useless to me.
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