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Around the Water Cooler: Polls and Language
By Rich Grassi
Outdoor Channel TV star, author and shooter Michael Bane saw me Wednesday morning and told me that Gallup was reporting their annual gun control public opinion poll. He said the results were interesting.
I went to the Gallup website and took a look for myself.
It seemed that the writer of the summary was surprised at the relative lack of public support for increased gun control measures - especially when considering the recent accumulation of "gun crimes" in mass shootings.
Gun crimes. What a concept. If someone driving a car rolls through a crowd of pedestrians, causing deaths and crippling injuries, is it "car crime?" No. If a politician takes bribes in exchange for favorable consideration, is it "money crime." Why does the thing drive the behavior?
Well, it doesn't except in certain cases and for political reasons. It's a way to lie without lying. In England, a country with ugly gun prohibition, they now have "knife crimes." Can you imagine telling one of the heroes of English history, someone who made his name with a sharp blade, that knives cause crime? The response, I feel, would be sudden and pointed.
There is no "gun crime." That's a fantasy. Guns don't cause crime, as we've seen time and time again. There are prohibited behaviors - actions taken by people that are contrary to the rules of civilized society. Laws that prohibit those behaviors (e.g., murder, theft) are legitimate.
Laws that prohibit the possession of things are not legitimate. Don't believe me? Look at the history of laws against possession in American history - not possession of guns, though those laws are routinely ignored in places like NYC. What about the real Prohibition - the Volstead Act. That was so routinely ignored the law was rendered irrelevant.
Counter-drug laws have been similarly irrelevant - to our shame and detriment. It's not that I'm for legalization or that I think the drugs prohibited are good or bad. It's that the laws have proven ineffective.
England got their anti-gun laws and still violent crime is high. Now, following the failure of gun prohibitions, they want to repeat the error and ban knives. Who said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result?
Gallup reported that 29% of Americans interviewed said that handguns should be banned. These are clearly the real thinkers in the group - or not. More likely, they feel handguns should be banned. 49% said that laws on sales of guns should be stricter - a bad thing. According to Gallup, that number is the smallest recorded since they began running that question in 1990. 41% said that laws on gun sales should remain as they are.
Clearly the firearms community needs to outreach - NSSF, among others, is currently trying to reach the non-shooting public and draw them into safely enjoying the shooting sports. It's a trend to be proactive on - not reactive.
