BALTIMORE —Â Gun reform remains one of the most divisive topics among Americans when it comes to federal policies. It turns out that divide may not actually be as wide as one might believe, particularly between gun owners and those who prefer to keep them out of their homes.
A recent national public opinion survey conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health found that, when it comes to most political stances and proposals on gun regulation in the United States, there’s a wide swath of common ground between gun owners and non-gun owners. The consensus was for tighter gun control policies.
Conducted in January 2017, the survey found overwhelming support for most gun-control policies being proposed. The survey presented 24 different gun control policies to 2,124 American adults, 602 of which were gun-owners. The researchers found that 15 of the 24, or 63 percent, were supported by both unarmed Americans and gun-owners alike. On 23 of the 24 proposals, the majority of respondents supported gun restrictions or regulations. Some of the policies included mandatory background checks for all gun sales and the prohibition of gun sales to individuals with active restraining orders.
“Relatively few states have these laws in place. This signals an opportunity for policy makers to enact policies which are both evidence-based and widely supported,” explains lead author Colleen Barry, Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the university’s School of Public Health, in a release.
Overall, universal background checks for all gun sales, greater accountability for licensed gun dealers on lost or stolen firearms, and higher standards for applicants for concealed-carry permits were the most popular gun regulation measures.
“Policies with high overall support among both gun owners and non-gun owners may be the most feasible to enact, and some have strong evidence to support their promise in reducing gun violence,” says Barry. “Widespread claims that a chasm separates gun owners from non-gun owners in their support for gun safety policies distract attention from many areas of genuine agreement.”
More than 38,000 people in the United States were killed with a gun in 2016, and more than 116,000 nonfatal gunshot wounds were treated in American hospitals.
The full study was published online in the American Journal of Public Health on June 6, 2018.
The study is deceptive because it about “reforms” in terms of reform _names_ and not specifics. For example, “uniform background checks” without mentioning that this applies to letting friends or family try each other’s guns, and without mentioning that even the attempt at enforcement would require universal registration of firearms. (Otherwise, someone illegally selling a gun to a felon would merely violate two laws instead of just one.) And also without mentioning that most guns in the black market are stolen — thieves are not subject to background checks. When given all relevant info a huge number of gun owners change their positions.
Or asking about gun prohibitions to people subject to restraining orders without mentioning that a a psycho ex-boyfriend wanting to murder the woman for rejecting him would simply get a restraining order against her to ensure she was unarmed when he came to kill her.
It also does not measure the fury that is generated when controls prove ineffective-against-crime, due to the realization that they had been passed merely to harass gun owners.
We already have laws to imprison many professional criminals for being caught illegally possessing firearms — but choose not to apply them because “too many people in prison.” More gun control laws won’t make the system anymore willing to imprison criminals who violate them, so what is the point? It’s just to protect criminals from the non-criminals as the criminals do their crimes.
Guns are a god given Constitutional right.
“More than 38,000 people in the United States were killed with a gun in 2016”
But only 11000 were homicides. The rest – 27000 – were suicides… about the same as with belts and plastic bags.
Compare that to 88000 deaths from alcohol per the CDC. Ban Alcohol and you save 8 times as many people as banning guns.
If Europe banned alcohol, over 300k people would be saved!
But 13,566 bars would go out of business.
But, we’ve been there and tried it (with alcohol). That doesn’t work either. Same as outlawing marijuana use. I don’t use it, so, I don’t care if it’s illegal, and would not break the law. If you’re a marijuana user, you don’t care about the law and use it anyway. Same with the gun laws. Non-users don’t have a problem with the ban and gun users are going to end up being outlaws. I don’t think they will let that happen, though! That is a good reason why there is a large belief in a pending civil war.