A new national survey by McLaughlin & Associates just fired what amounts to a warning shot across the bow of anti-gun Capitol Hill Democrats currently pushing the far left gun control agenda.
The survey was done for the Second Amendment Foundation, and it revealed a stunning 58.1 percent of American voters are more likely to “support a candidate for Congress who supports the 2nd Amendment and the right to bear arms.”
Only 21.9 percent are “less likely” to support such a candidate, according to the poll, which was released Thursday. That amounts to more than a 2-to-1 preference for gun rights candidates just days after the Biden-Harris administration announced its “initial” proposals for tougher gun control laws, suggesting there will be other actions to follow.
The McLaughlin survey also found the same strong support for debating gun control through the traditional democratic process rather than by executive fiat. By a 58.1 percent margin, Americans want proposed gun policies to go through the process, while 31 percent support the idea of adopting gun control by presidential executive order “without any input from Congress.”
The gun poll questions were part of a larger survey that had some bad news for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While 37.1 percent of poll respondents have a favorable opinion of the liberal San Francisco Democrat, 52.9 percent have an unfavorable opinion of her.
On Thursday, four anti-gun Democrats led by Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey and New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler, announced the “Judiciary Act of 2021,” but Pelosi quickly announced she has no plans to bring the measure to the House floor for a vote, according to Fox News. She reportedly did acknowledge she is “open” to expanding the size of the court, however.
The biggest red flag for anti-gunners in the McLaughlin survey is the overwhelmingly positive support for the Second Amendment. The McLaughlin survey revealed 73.4 percent of Americans agree with this statement: “There is a reason why the Founders made the right to bear arms, the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution right after the 1st Amendment. The Founders understood the importance of law-abiding citizens’ right to legally own firearms for things like hunting, sport and personal protection and the 2nd Amendment is one of our most important and cherished civil rights…”
A whopping 72.6 percent support the Second Amendment, while 20.9 percent oppose it, the survey noted.
Also, more voters (52.2%) believe we should enforce existing gun laws rather than adopt stricter laws (40.4%) to fight violent crime.
According to a SAF news release, “The McLaughlin survey revealed that 52.2 percent of the public thinks better enforcement of existing gun laws is the right approach to reducing violent crime, and 55.5 percent want politicians to focus on current laws rather than enact more laws (36.1%). Importantly, 58.1 percent of Americans believe any proposed firearm policies should be debated and enacted through a democratic process, while only 31 percent think the president should enact policy by executive order…They also believe by a margin of 44.9 percent to 37.6 percent that more gun control laws would not have stopped recent mass shooting tragedies, while 17.5 percent aren’t sure.”
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb issued a statement early Thursday that contained a stern suggestion: “Based on these survey results, anti-gunners, including Joe Biden, should cool their zeal for passing new legislation.”
According to pollster Jim McLaughlin, the national survey contacted 1,000 likely voters across the country during the period of April 8-13, starting one day after Joe Biden announced his gun control proposals. The survey has a +/- 3.1 percentage point sampling error with a 95% level of confidence, McLaughlin said.
“As we’ve been saying for years,” Gottlieb observed, “gun control extremists have been completely wrong in their desire erase the Second Amendment and turn a right to bear arms into a heavily-regulated privilege. That notion doesn’t even square with non-gun owners, as the McLaughlin survey results confirm.”
