Do 70% of people really support a ban on semi-automatic weapons?

[Jkwas]

Tonight I was watching the Sarah Palin interview, she was asked about her pro gun position considering 70% of Americans
favor banning Semi-Automatic weapons.    Where does that figure come from, and how do we call them on it if false?

[m25operator]

Call them, E mail them, ( the producers ) and ask, but you can bet the NRA and the RKBA will be doing that for you, and very soon.

[Fatman]

In a September 1988 report on "assault weapons" that he prepared for the Education Fund to End Handgun Violence, gun control advocate Josh Sugarmann candidly observed: "The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weaponsanything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine guncan only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these guns."

So back in 1988, one of the nation's leading gun prohibitionists was banking on public support for restrictions on "semi-automatic assault weapons," not because Americans were informed about the guns in question, but because they were uninformed and likely to remain so. Sugarmann, now executive director of the Violence Policy Center, could rely on the public's continuing confusion because he knew he would have the help of the nation's leading news organizations. During the next few years the major TV networks, newspapers, and magazines persistently misled the public about the capabilities of "assault weapons," falsely implied that the guns have no legitimate use, and ignored the Second Amendment issues at stake. Given the intensity of this misinformation, it is hardly surprising that polls find some 70 percent of Americans support the "assault weapon" ban approved by Congress last year.

Many members of the current Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, favor repealing the ban, although that effort was put on hold in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. In reporting on the continuing controversy, the national press routinely cites strong public support for the ban. The lead of an April 6 story in TheNew York Times is typical: "A group of House Republicans plans to introduce legislation on Thursday to repeal last year's ban on assault weapons, even as national polls continue to show that a majority of Americans favor it." Having whipped up hysteria about "assault weapons," journalists now point to the results of their alarmist reporting as evi dence that they were right all along. Although big journalism's misleading coverage of this issue can be partly explained by a combination of ignorance and arrogance, it seems clear that hostility toward the right to keep and bear arms has played an important role.

From the beginning, stories about "assault weapons" blurred the distinction between semi-automatics and machine guns. Machine guns are automatics: They fire as long as the trigger is held back. The possession of such firearms has been strictly regulated by the federal government since 1934. They have long been banned in some states, and no new automatics have legally entered civilian circulation in the United States since 1986. But semi-automatics, regardless of how much some of them may look like machine guns, fire one shot per trigger pull. Civilians have commonly used them for recreation and self-defense since the turn of the century

Excerpt from here:

http://www.reason.com/news/show/29766.html

I think someone is taking liberties with the truth again.

[PegLeg45]

When anti-gunners start spouting about facts and stats about firearms, I always ask for proof...and they usually shut up.

[tombogan03884]

The number probably came out of the air since an NRA poll showed that 60% of DEMOCRATS own at least 1 fire arm.

[Sponsor]

[twyacht]

Its obvious this election will just downright be the "nastiest" ever.

Facts won't matter, stats won't matter, the MSM and far-left will do WHATEVER it takes to smear first, defend later.

Its as Rush Limbaugh calls it "the textbook left-wing gameplan", and its sad but true.

[TAB]

I honestly don't think 90% of amercians, could tell which ones would be legal, and which ones would not if we were to have another AWB like the last one.


In CA is so mess up, we have a flow chart...

http://www.calguns.net/caawid/flowchart.pdf


you would also be amazed at what a "tool" actuallly is in regaurds to detacable mags.

[tombogan03884]

TAB's right, in Ca. even the DOJ doesn't know whats legal or not. Look what happened with the SKS.

[KC]

The closest I could find to 70 percent was from this post from ABC News, 6/26/08 By Gary Langer. To round 67 percent favored banning assault weapons to 70 percent favor banning semi-automatic weapons and then taking it out of context where the majority don't think that will work is certainly hypocritical since the news media is always out to catch the politicians for being misleading. From the abc site:

Consider an ABC News poll on the subject last year: Six in 10 favored "stricter gun control laws." But just 38 percent favored banning the sale of handguns, and 42 percent favored a ban on carrying concealed weapons. By contrast, 67 percent favored banning assault weapons and 55 percent favored banning semi-automatic handguns. In previous ABC/Post polling, support has been broader still for mandatory registration and licensing for handgun owners, background checks and trigger locks. And after the Virginia Tech shootings, eight in 10 backed a national registry meant to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

Views of the Second Amendment are one factor informing attitudes on gun control; there are others. One is some skepticism about whether legislation would do the job; while six in 10 support stricter gun laws in general, fewer, 49 percent, think such laws in fact would reduce gun violence. Instead better enforcement is preferred to new legislation, by 52 to 29 percent.

And perhaps most fundamentally, far more people blame gun violence on the influences of upbringing and culture than on access to firearms. In our 2007 poll, 40 percent blamed "the influence of popular culture" as the main cause of gun violence, and 35 percent pointed to "the way parents raise their children." Just 18 percent pinned it primarily on the availability of guns.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenumbers/2008/06/guns-and-the-co.html

[twyacht]

I found this poll by Gallup, not as slanted as the MSM polls:


Public support for stricter gun laws has been declining since the 1990s, according to the Gallup Poll. In January 2007, the number of people who supported stricter gun laws was at 49 percent, less than a majority for the first time since at least 1990.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/17/schneider.gun.control/index.html

And here's how stats are SLANTED, and used by the MSM, this one was done by a biased group, they ask poll questions like:"How long has it been since you stopped beating your wife?"

Many adults in the United States believe a specific kind of weapon should be forbidden, according to a poll by Knowledge Networks released by the Associated Press and Yahoo. 55 per cent of respondents support a law requiring a nationwide ban on semi-automatic handguns, which automatically re-load every time they are fired.
http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/2007025/posts

They also quote Jesse Jackson, so I'm sure its a fair & balanced poll.......