A new Pew Research poll has revealed that a growing number of homes now have guns, and that Hillary Clinton supporters think gun control is more important than gun rights, while Donald Trump backers place more importance on gun rights protection.
Results of the Pew research Center poll were released Aug. 26 and the Washington Examiner quickly reported it. The newspaper said 44 percent of Americans have a gun in the home, underscoring what the Second Amendment movement and the firearms industry have been suggesting for a long time. Record gun sales are not simply being made to people who already own firearms. A lot of first-time buyers are in the mix.
Gun sales and applications for concealed carry licenses are at an all-time high. For example, Arizona on Monday morning showed 282,330 active concealed weapons permits. That’s up more than 1,000 permits since Aug. 21, when the number was 281,303.
Gun ownership is non-partisan, but gun control certainly appears to be, according to the Pew survey results. Here was a telling revelation in the Pew report:
By more than four-to-one (79% to 19%), Clinton supporters prioritize controlling gun ownership over protecting gun rights. By about nine-to-one (90% to 9%), Trump supporters express the opposite view – that it is generally more important to protect gun rights than control gun ownership.
The survey also finds a substantial divide in the views of Clinton and Trump supporters about whether gun ownership does more to protect or endanger public safety. A majority of the public (58%) says that gun ownership does more to protect people from crime than to put people’s safety at risk; 37% say gun ownership does more to endanger personal safety.
Fully 89% of registered voters who support Trump say gun ownership does more to protect than to put people’s safety at risk, compared with just 9% who believe it does more to risk people’s safety. Among Clinton supporters, about twice as many say gun ownership does more to endanger personal safety than say it protects people from becoming victims of crime (65% vs. 32%).
A different poll, this one from Rasmussen, shows the trend in another light. According to Rasmussen, 96 percent of Trump supporters are angry about current federal government policies, while only 36 percent of Clinton supporters are upset with the feds. Further, 66 percent of the Clinton backers believe the federal government protects individual liberty, while a whopping 89 percent of Trump supporters see the federal government as a threat to that liberty.
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Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in Tampa Sept. 23-25
