And that's the problem. When someone tries to do anything about it, the gun nuts to crazy and cry that their rights are being taken, all while ignoring half of their scared amendment. The only real important part anyway, as that was all the NRA felt ever needed to be enshrined!

 

And let's look at this.

AP-NORC poll: Most in US say they want stricter gun laws


By SARA BURNETTAugust 23, 2022



Various guns are displayed at a store on July 18, 2022, in Auburn, Maine. Most U.S. adults think gun violence is increasing nationwide and want to see gun laws made stricter. That's according to a new poll that finds broad public support for a variety of gun restrictions. The poll comes from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

CHICAGO (AP) — Most U.S. adults want to see gun laws made stricter and think gun violence is increasing nationwide, according to a new poll that finds broad public support for a variety of gun restrictions, including many that are supported by majorities of Republicans and gun owners.

The poll by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows 71% of Americans say gun laws should be stricter, including about half of Republicans, the vast majority of Democrats and a majority of those in gun-owning households.

The poll was conducted between July 28 and Aug. 1, after a string of deadly mass shootings — from a New York grocery store to a school in Texas and a July 4 parade in Illinois — and a 2020 spike in gun killings that have increased attention on the issue of gun violence. Overall, 8 in 10 Americans perceive that gun violence is increasing around the country, and about two-thirds say it’s increasing in their state, though less than half believe it’s increasing in their community, the poll shows.

ADVERTISEMENT


The question of how to prevent such violence has long divided politicians and many voters, making it difficult to change gun laws. In June, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court expanded gun rights, finding a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

Later that same month, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan gun safety bill. The package, approved in the wake of shootings like the one that killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, was both a measured compromise and the most significant bill addressing gun violence to be approved in Congress in decades — an indication of how intractable the issue has become.

Top headlines

• 
  Past US presidents, VPs asked to recheck for classified docs

• 
  DA: 5 Memphis cops 'all responsible' for Tyre Nichols' death

• 
  Palestinians: Israeli troops kill 10 in West Bank violence

• 
  NYC bike path killer convicted, could face the death penalty

The poll finds that majorities of U.S. adults view both reducing gun violence and protecting gun ownership as important issues.

Nicole Whitelaw, 29, is a Democrat and gun owner who grew up hunting and target shooting in upstate New York with her strongly Republican family. Whitelaw, who now lives along Florida’s Gulf Coast, supports some gun restrictions, such as prohibiting people convicted of domestic violence from owning firearms and a federal law preventing mentally ill people from purchasing guns.

ADVERTISEMENT


She said other restrictions — such as banning sales of AR-15 rifles — are “going too far” and may not solve the problem. Whitelaw pointed to the the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many people bought up all the toilet paper they could find.

“I think people would start trying to hoard guns,” she said, adding that a better approach is to make smaller changes and see what impact they have.

The poll shows bipartisan majorities of Americans support a nationwide background check policy for all gun sales, a law preventing mentally ill people from purchasing guns, allowing courts to temporarily prevent people who are considered a danger to themselves or others from purchasing a gun, making 21 the minimum age to buy a gun nationwide and banning those who have been convicted of domestic violence from purchasing a gun.

ADVERTISEMENT


A smaller majority of Americans — 59% — favor a ban on the sale of AR-15 rifles and similar semiautomatic weapons, with Democrats more likely to support that policy than Republicans, 83% vs. 35%.

Chris Boylan, 47, from Indianapolis, opposes restrictions on guns. As a teacher for many years, Boylan said he has “buried more kids than I care to count” and believes gun violence is a major problem. But the Republican, who said he leans more toward Libertarian in his personal stances, believes the issue is more about mental health and a too-lenient criminal justice system.


“Blaming the gun is an oversimplification of what the issues really are,” Boylan said. “It’s not the gun. It’s a hearts-and-minds issue to me.”

The new poll finds 88% of Americans call preventing mass shootings extremely or very important, and nearly as many say that about reducing gun violence in general. But 60% also say it’s very important to ensure that people can own guns for personal protection.

ADVERTISEMENT


Overall, 52% of Americans -- including 65% of Republicans and 39% of Democrats -- say both reducing mass shootings and protecting the right to own guns for personal protection highly important.

University of Chicago professor Jens Ludwig said the poll’s findings show that concerns raised by opponents of gun restrictions are “very off base.” Led by the National Rifle Association, the gun lobby argues that any new limitations on who may have a gun or what type of firearms may be sold will lead to nationwide bans on all weapons and ammunition.

The poll showed most Americans’ opinions are more nuanced and there is support for some changes even among Republicans, who as elected officials typically oppose gun control, said Ludwig, who also is director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab.

“It should shut the door to some of the ‘slippery slope’ arguments,” he said.

The poll also found that only about 3 in 10 Americans support a law allowing people to carry guns in public without a permit. Seventy-eight percent of Democrats are opposed. Among Republicans, 47% are in favor and 39% are opposed.

ADVERTISEMENT


Ervin Leach, 66, lives in Troutman, North Carolina, north of Charlotte, believes gun violence is a major problem and says that laws should be much more strict. A Democrat, Leach said he supports measures like background checks — or what he said should be “in-depth studies” — and a minimum age of 21 to buy a gun.

The poll found 1 in 5 people have experienced gun violence themselves in the last five years, such as being threatened with a gun or a shooting victim, or had a close friend or family member who has. Black and Hispanic Americans are especially likely to say that they or someone close to them has experienced gun violence.

Leach, who is Black, said the gun violence he sees in the news has made him more cautious.

“I don’t like people approaching me,” he said. “It used to be if someone was on the side of the road, you’d stop to help. Now, you go to help somebody, you might lose your life.”

All the killings have caused Leach to contemplate buying a gun for his own protection. While he hasn’t had a chance yet to get his gun permit, he said, “That is my intention.”

___

AP Polling Reporter Hannah Fingerhut in Washington contributed to this report.

___

The poll of 1,373 adults was conducted July 28-Aug. 1 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.



It is actually another case of minority rule in the US. The only ones who don't want some common sense gun controls are treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans and the gun lobby that has bought and paid for them.

And freedom my aching ass. No one can be free in a country where all of us are at risk of getting shot in a random mass shooting.

 

Its like stumbler thinks any post of less than half a page is meaningless.

 

How about this the US should have a national referendum about gun ownership it should be a ballot where ever person vote was kept on a national register. If you voted for guns or did not vote , if you were shot in a criminal act it would be counted as suicide and your insurance and medical insurance would not pay out.
After all they what'd the guns ......

 

Think that might step on the 2nd amendment a bit?

 

The founding fathers of the United States envisioned the future of the United States would have very little human suffering and no one in prison. This is by reason of virtue, morals, and ethics. I use Kiichiro Toyoda's, founder of Toyota, root cause failure analysis. It has taken me 33 years and I should have the solution written up soon. No person on earth wants to be in pain. So all of humanity's problems come from pain and suffering. End human suffering and end violence. How many solutions can all of you come up with?

 

While I tend to agree ending human suffering could go a long way to ending violence the founders surely envisioned no such thing. Most of them were still slave holders and George Washington had to call out troops to put down rebellions.

 

I have studied the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution extensively and the two have nothing to do with each other. None.

The Declaration of Independence is a brilliant propaganda piece designed for the sole purpose of convincing the colonies to go to war. But has no legal bearing whatsoever and was not incorporated into the Constitution. The Declaration of Independence was a list of grievances.

And our individual rights were not even defined in the Constitution. That came later in the Bill of Rights which was the only way to finally get it ratified.

 

Let's clear this misconception up from the get, they were not slave holders, they practiced indentured servitude, almost like slavery but once the money owed was repaid they were again freed, many times it was viewed as a loan or debt that had to be worked off. Slavery in the US was illegal until after the Dred Scott decision in 1857 so no original founder could have been a slave holder. And the founders were willing to name Washington as king because the people were not ready to vote in an elected tyrant just to replace the one they had.

 

This is just woefully ignorant, 17 of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention owned a total of about 1,400 slaves. Of the first 12 U.S. presidents, eight were slave owners. And note they were slave owners. George Washington freed his slaves upon Martha's death. But while Thomas Jefferson wrote slavery is evil he owned about 600 slaves and never freed the vast majority of them. Jefferson rationalized his ownership of others with the racist theory that Blacks were mentally inferior and had a sense of paternalistic racism, writing that freeing them was like “abandoning children.”

The entire Constitution is a series of compromises that incorporated slavery into it. The economy of the South was dependent on slavery which was very profitable. And the Southern colonies not only demanded slavery be protected they also feared the northern colonies having bigger populations and thus more representatives in the House so they also demanded slaves be counted in the population which is where the 3/5ths of a person comes from.

The founders tried to addr3ess the slave trade but not slavery in the Constitution. Which is why they tried to ban the importation of slaves after 1808 but that didn't really work out for them.

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/slave-trade.html


And of course there is the Dred Scott decision.

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/dred-scott-v-sandford


And I am not sure what you are trying to say with "And the founders were willing to name Washington as king because the people were not ready to vote in an elected tyrant just to replace the one they had."

There was actually some debate about having a monarch like European countries but that was soundly rejected and eliminated with how to elect a president.

But that is not to say the founders were big believers in democracy because they definitely weren't. They were almost all wealthy white men and wrote the Constitution to protect people like themselves. They actually feared electing Representatives in the House by popular vote. Some claimed that would result in "moocracy" where the poor unwashed and uneducated would elect representatives like themselves. So they countered that by creating the much more powerful Senate who would not be elected but appointed by state legislatures which of course would consist mostly of wealthy white man just like them. And then to hedge their bet even further they determined the states could decide who cold vote knowing most states wold limit the right to vote to only property owning white males which was only about 6% population.

 

Did Black People Own Slaves? | AfricanAmerica.org

They were slaves in Africa before the slave trade began.