Gallup Poll Shows Americans Not Clamoring for More Gun Control
(Springfield, VA) — Now that the second anniversary of Columbine has passed, a new Gallup poll reveals that Americans don’t place a priority upon new gun control laws as the answer to school violence.
Gun Owners of America has argued for years — and this poll reaffirms — that poor education and the lack of parental involvement are the greatest contributing factors to school violence.
“How else do we explain the lower violence rates in the 1940s and 1950s?” asked GOA Communications Director Erich Pratt. “There were virtually no gun control laws during those two decades, and yet, kids weren’t shooting up their schools.
“Obviously, gun control is not the answer. Today, we have more than 70,000 words of restrictions and requirements in the federal code alone. But these laws are not stopping kids from taking guns to school. Gun control has failed wherever it has been tried,” Pratt said.
So what do Americans think our society needs to do to prevent another Columbine? According to the poll, the number one answer (31%) underscored the need of having greater “parent involvement/responsibility.”
After that most popular answer, the percentages dropped off considerably. Fourteen percent of respondents believed we need “more security at schools.” And Americans were divided in terms of what kind of social controls must be enacted. While these answers were farther down the list, eleven percent of respondents wanted to secure a “better education” and to “control media violence.” The same percentage wanted to enact “better gun control laws.”
“Those in the media who want more gun control had better take notice,” Pratt said. “The argument that says the ‘government must pass more laws’ can cut both ways. Americans could just as easily demand restrictions upon the First Amendment as they could upon the Second.”