By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Following a series of polls asking questions about gun control and gun rights, it appears “Americans are waking up to the importance of gun ownership,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) says in a Friday news release.
The grassroots gun rights group pointed to a new Washington Post-ABC News survey revealing support for Second Amendment protection has risen by 9 percent, while support for new gun control laws has declined 7 percent. Newsweek noted in a report on the poll, “Fifty percent of Americans overall say they view the enacting of new anti-gun violence laws and firearm restrictions as a top legislative priority. But among young Americans under 30, there was a 20 percent drop in support since 2018.”
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said, “It may have come as a surprise to the Washington Post and ABC News to see increasing support for gun rights, but it appears our public education effort is working. We’ve been warning Americans about the serious threats from the Biden-Harris administration and Capitol Hill anti-gunners against their constitutional rights, and the people have listened.”
The effort to which he refers has been ongoing for more than a month. CCRKBA has been sponsoring a 60-second message about legislation on Capitol Hill that poses a direct threat to gun rights. House Bill 127, sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) would require expanded background checks, a psychological exam for anyone wanting to buy a gun and other restrictions.
More recently, CCRKBA has been warning about anti-gun Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) latest bill to ban so-called “assault weapons.”
The new Washington Post-ABC News poll follows two other important surveys released in April—by Rasmussen Reports and McLaughlin & Associates—that show a majority of American voters prefer enforcement of existing gun laws over adoption of new gun control measures.
The McLaughlin survey, commissioned by SAF, revealed more than 72 percent of Americans support the right to keep and bear arms. Over 73 percent agree the Second Amendment is one of our most important and cherished rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.
“This public awakening to the importance of protecting the right to own a firearm may be largely due to the energetic advertising campaigns we, and our sister organization, the Second Amendment Foundation, have been conducting over the past three months,” Gottlieb said. “We have reached scores of millions of Americans with more than 1,000 TV spots, and at least 9 million more people through digital advertising, and tens of millions more via email and text messaging.”
According to Newsweek, “Americans overall are less supportive of new gun control legislations than they were just three years ago.” The most significant decline for new gun control laws is among people between the ages of 18 and 29, the poll revealed.
“In April 2018,” Newsweek reported, “the last time the ABC/Washington Post survey was conducted on this issue, 65 percent of these young Americans said they support gun control laws. That percentage is now 45.”
During the first week of May, Gottlieb announced, CCRKBA and its sister organization, the Second Amendment Foundation, will be running 115 spots on more than a dozen national networks.
“These surveys show Americans are getting wise to failures of gun control and the importance of gun ownership at a time when the far Left wants to defund and disband police agencies, and the Biden-Harris administration wants to ban guns and erode the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb said. “We’re standing in their way.”
