The Hill:Let’s break that down; 91% support background checks and 48% think they’d lead to confiscation. That means that nearly all the people who believe background checks are the first step in a big “gun grab” are cool with that gun grab. Damn math’s unending liberal bias! In other words, if someone fails a background check, a very substantial number of people hope it would mean that police will come and confiscate all their other guns — since they obviously own those illegally as well.
A plurality of Americans believe the federal government could use information gleaned from expanded background checks to confiscate legally owned firearms, according to a Quinnipiac survey released Thursday.
But the poll also showed support for background checks remains nearly universal.
“In every Quinnipiac University poll since the Newtown massacre, nationally and in six states, we find overwhelming support, including among gun owners, for universal background checks,” Quinnipiac University Polling Institute Assistant Director Peter A. Brown said in a statement.
“American voters agree with the National Rifle Association, however, that these background checks could lead someday to confiscation of legally-owned guns.”
Of course, it doesn’t mean that at all — and it’s yet another indictment of our broken media that people think it does. Background checks, for good or bad, only keep people from purchasing firearms. If it’s illegal for people to own firearms, background checks will do nothing to take them from them. Not that it shouldn’t. Blood lobbyists keep telling us we need to enforce the laws we have — taking guns away from people who would fail background checks would be doing exactly that.
But think about how far outside the mainstream the blood lobby and soft-on-murder Washington politicians actually are. An extremely modest expansion of background checks may go nowhere in DC this time around, while a substantial chunk of the population would go much, much further than the fairly meek bill they’re all terrified to pass.
The public is so on the side of meaningful gun regulation. Now all we have to do is convince them that it’s important enough to kick people out of office over.
[photo by kcdsTM]
