Nuggets mined from the massive 80-page report from the Pew Research Center, “Cultural Issues and the 2024 Election,” released last week reveal that, despite the continuing onslaught of attacks on private gun ownership and the Second Amendment by the left-wing media and the Biden administration, Americans remain steadfast in their support of them.
More than half of those polled (54 percent) said that private gun ownership “does more to increase safety by allowing law-abiding citizens to protect themselves.”
But, contrarily, a majority (52 percent) think that “an increase in the number of guns in the United States is bad for society.”
Something strange is going on here. As The New American has recently reported, Americans have been arming themselves at the rate of more than one million firearms every month for at least the last 10 years. And 16 million of them now belong to those who have never owned a firearm.
Light is shed on the conundrum by another study, this one by YouGov, also released last week. That study showed that nearly two out of three Americans believe that owning a gun in the U.S. should be legal in all (64 percent) or most (52 percent) cases.
That study also showed that the number of guns legally owned isn’t behind gun violence. Instead respondents properly blame “gangs and organized crime” (65 percent), “drugs” (56 percent), “mental illness” (53 percent), “decline in morality” (53 percent), and “leniency in the criminal-justice system” (49 percent).
The number of guns owned (32 percent) is in 12th place!
The YouGov study’s results were confirmed by the FBI on Monday: During the first quarter of this year violent crime decreased by 15.2 percent compared to a year earlier, murder by 26.4 percent, rape by 25.7 percent, robbery by 17.8 percent, property crime by 15.1 percent, and aggravated assault by 12.5 percent.
So, while gun ownership has increased, crime has decreased. Just as John Lott discovered and revealed in his 1998 book More Guns, Less Crime.
That book is now in its third edition, and includes much additional data since the original publication — all of which confirms the title.
Lott’s book turned the head of an academic who initially had a negative view of firearms and their role in the culture. But he and his wife were expecting a child and he wanted to make certain to raise him/her with a proper understanding on the issue.
He wrote in a review of the book at Amazon:
I am a trained researcher, but I conducted my research for personal not professional reasons. My wife was pregnant, and I wanted hard facts–not talking points from the political parties–so I could make an informed decision about what to teach my children about firearms, and whether it would be prudent or dangerous to have one in our house….
Again and again, [Lott] shows that with only slight variations in the magnitude of the results, more concealed carry permits equals less violent crime (murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robberies…).
On all counts, this constitutes powerful evidence that the likely presence of a defensive firearm has a statistically significant deterrence effect on criminal behavior.
More concealed carry permits lead to a net decline in assaults and deaths, and a net decline in the financial costs to society. Moreover, these benefits apply to all citizens–not just those who are armed–and they increase over time, as the number of carry permits rises.
Support for the Second Amendment, according to Pew, remains firmly in place. And an increase in the number of law-abiding citizens now owning a firearm for the first time cements into place how they feel about the number of firearms in the culture: the more, the better. And safer.
Related articles:
Americans Continue to Add More Than a Million Firearms to Their Arsenals Every Month
16 Million New Gun Owners Since Biden Took Over the White House
