Forty-four percent (44%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that the government will try to confiscate all privately owned guns over the next generation or so, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Fifty percent (50%) feel gun confiscation is unlikely. This includes 20% who think the government is Very Likely to make this move and 23% who say it’s Not At All Likely.Sample size = 1000; margin of error +/- 3%.
Via Althouse, where a lively discussion is going on in her comments section. I think that this one wins the Internets:
Henry said...Unsurprisingly, people who trust the government a lot (what Rasmussen calls the "Political Class", barf) think that the Gubmint won't do this, by 59%. Normal people think that the Gubmint will, by 55%.
Obama should propose a revolutionary "green guns" program. Green guns will create green guns jobs. A cash for clunker guns program will remove rusty muskets from collector's cases. A high speed green guns corridor between Berkeley and Cambridge will cost $1B and bog down just West of Walnut Creek. The green guns program is guaranteed to produce no actual guns. Everyone wins.
At least some folks are finally waking up!!!
ReplyDeleteBut that is really only half the question. A true poll would also ask the followup. Of those that think the government is going to confiscate weapons, is that a good or bad thing? And the same for the other side
ReplyDelete"Good or bad" becomes irrelevant when we're discussing a government abrogating a natural, Constitutionally-guaranteed right of The People.
ReplyDeleteIt's bad by definition, simply because said government doesn't have the authority to do it in the first place.
We all agree with that.
ReplyDeleteMy point is that not everyone thinks the same way. Strange as it seems there is a large segment of the current population who believe that " guns are bad and the problem. And therefore it would be a good thing of the government collected them all".
Unless the poll takes that into account the numbers are misleading
The detailed Rasmussen report (behind a paywall, but excerpted at Althouse) seems to do some of what Ted is asking, although it reframes things into "political class"/"normal" groupings.
ReplyDeleteUnsurprisingly, the people who identify as political class are enthusiastic about gun control.
I think that the government will try to confiscate firearms in my lifetime. Not all of them - they'll start with the low hanging fruit like AR-15s and so forth.
ReplyDeleteAlso, not the operative word in the first sentence: "Try".
They won't succeed, because something like this would require totaly buy-in and cooperation from US gun owners. THis isn't Australia, where gun ownership was rare as a hen's tooth, and the right wasn't guaranteed by the COnstitution. You've likely got 200 million households to search in order to get them all. No one has time for all of that, and even if they did, they wouldn't find much, because what idiot wouldn't have hidden them, quite well, by then?
My guess is that 80% of gun owners will passively disobey by hiding their guns somewhere, and the other 20% will give up their guns, bullets first.
So not only do you need millions of compliant LEOs to complete the searches, but you'd better be giving them hazard pay.
In short, it is a pipe dream on the part of the Philosopher Kings to think they could ever pull it off, but as I said over at my place the other day, pipedreams are what being aphilosopher is all about - reality rarely infringes...