New Pew Research Center survey on guns

Talk the talk,
or walk the walk?

By motomynd

Moristotle & Co. recently hosted a spirited discussion about gun rights following the tragic shooting of school children in Newtown, Connecticut. Even among the blog's editors strong opinions seemed to range from "ban all guns" to "people will basically forget about this over the holidays."
    For those interested in following up, there is an article from the National Public Radio website with highlights of a new Pew Research Center survey: "Poll Says Gun-Rights Supporters Fund Their Cause; Opponents Don't." To read detailed results of the survey, see "In Gun Control Debate, Several Options Draw Majority Support."

For those who don't want to read the entire survey, or even the NPR article, here are some of the more surprising results. Gun rights versus gun control is not the partisan political issue many think it is; gun owners are not a monolithic bloc and many of them agree with some gun-control measures favored by the non-gun-owning general public; more than 80 percent of Republicans and Democrats agree with the idea of requiring background checks for private gun sales and at gun shows, and with tightening laws to restrict people with mental illness from buying guns.
    Perhaps the most concerning detail revealed by the survey is that most people are less upset about gun violence and mass shootings today than they were just a decade or two ago, so in that respect more people did basically forget about Newtown over the holidays than clamor for action.
    As we prepare to publish this post we are waiting to hear the recommendations of Vice President Joe Biden's task force on reducing gun violence. Based on the public outcry the days after the Newtown shootings one might reasonably expect huge changes. Based on the actual trend in gun laws, and long-term reactions to gun violence, in recent decades, maybe not.

For those who wonder why the pro-gun folks seem to always win out over the pro-gun control forces when it comes to legislation, the answer seems to be activism. Here is a quote from the NPR article:

There is a wide gap between those who prioritize gun rights and gun control when it comes to political involvement. Nearly a quarter (23%) of those who say gun rights should be the priority have contributed money to an organization that takes a position on gun policy, compared with just 5% of those who prioritize gun control. People who favor gun rights are also about twice as likely as gun control supporters to have contacted a public official about gun policy (15% vs. 8%).

Bottom line is that pro-gun-control people talk the talk, but pro-gun people walk the walk and, to quote a fitting idiom, "they put their money where their mouth is."
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Copyright © 2013 by motomynd

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