There is a disturbing revelation in a new Rasmussen survey published this week that might well be discussed during this coming weekend’s 34th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) in Phoenix.
According to Rasmussen, 24 percent of survey respondents “favor repealing the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment which guarantees the right of most citizens to own a gun.” The same survey revealed that 15 percent of respondents believe the amendment guarantees the right to own a gun, and ten percent aren’t sure.
That seems to be a lot of people, one might argue with no small amount of sarcasm, who slept through or skipped their high school class on American government and the Constitution.
Not surprisingly, Rasmussen noted that this is virtually the same result it got when the public was polled on the Second Amendment ten years ago. At that time, according to Rasmussen archives, “Seventy-five percent (75%) of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of an average citizen to own a gun… Just 14% say gun ownership is not a constitutional right. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.”
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In 2009, Rasmussen’s survey also found that “A whopping 92% of Republicans say the Constitution guarantees their right to own a gun, compared to 64% of Democrats and 71% of adults not affiliated with either of the major political parties.”
This time around, according to Rasmussen, “Most Democrats (66%) agree that the Constitution guarantees the right of gun ownership, although support is higher among Republicans (84%) and those not affiliated with either major political party (77%).”
The question still stands, however. Have nearly one-fourth of American adults decided that the Bill of Rights is subject to cut-and-paste? Are these people so opposed to the idea of their fellow citizens being able to have a firearm for any legitimate reason, or for no reason at all since it’s a protected right, that they are willing to throw the Second Amendment on the historical trash heap?
This actually says something important. The 24 percent of American adults favoring repeal are, by default, acknowledging that the Second Amendment does protect a right to own a gun, and they just don’t like the idea of private citizens having guns. Even the late retired Justice John Paul Stevens famously advocated for repeal of the Second Amendment in an Op-Ed published by the New York Times last year. Stevens passed this past July 16.
As for that 15 percent of survey respondents who don’t believe the amendment protects an individual right, they’ll have to argue that with the Supreme Court of the United States, where Stevens’ replacement, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, is thought to be a pro-rights conservative.
Sixty percent of survey respondents oppose repeal, which is up from 56 percent reported in April 2018, after Justice Stevens’ Op-Ed appeared in print.
Gun control is a hot button, even toxic, political subject in the wake of summer shootings in California, Ohio and Texas. It will most likely remain a political football heading into 2020, especially after Democrat Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke ignited a firestorm with his remark that “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
Millions of American gun owners, backed by this new Rasmussen survey result, are telling O’Rourke and other Democrats, “Hell no, you’re not, either!”
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