{"id":1498480,"date":"2022-05-31T14:45:28","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T18:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1498480"},"modified":"2022-05-31T14:45:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T18:45:49","slug":"democrats-are-fooling-themselves-on-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-are-fooling-themselves-on-guns\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Are Fooling Themselves On Guns"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-are-fooling-themselves-on-guns%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1498480&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/SIG_Pro_by_Augustas_Didzgalvis.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Did you know that 76 percent of voters\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/morningconsult.com\/2022\/05\/23\/domestic-terrorism-bill-popularity\/\">support<\/a>\u00a0the Democrat\u2019s \u201cDomestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022?\u201d What kind of depraved fascist wouldn\u2019t want to prevent domestic terrorism or the prosecution of domestic terrorists, right? Now, how many of those voters would support the bill if they knew the FBI had recently\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2021\/10\/the-biden-administration-is-trying-to-intimidate-parents\/\">investigated<\/a>\u00a0law-abiding parents as \u201cdomestic terrorists\u201d for protesting against identitarian curriculums and lockdowns in their schools? I suspect the numbers might look quite different.<\/p>\n<p>Time and time again we see the same process play out. First, legacy media adopts the Democratic Party\u2019s favored euphemisms or language to mislead the public \u2014 think, \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay.\u201d Pollsters then wrap their questions in ambiguous, disingenuous, or misleading terms to get the answers they seek from voters. Once pollsters reinforce their priors, the media reports on the results. After their rhetoric has been laundered, Democrats claim their agenda is widely popular and thus, democracy is being undermined by those who won\u2019t support these preferred policies.<\/p>\n<p>American voters, for instance, overwhelmingly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zackfriedman\/2022\/04\/18\/student-loan-forgiveness-new-poll-shows-64-support\/\">back<\/a> \u201cloan forgiveness.\u201d But do these voters believe that taxpayers \u2014 many of whom have either never attended college or paid their students loans or worked their way through college or graduated from less prestigious institutions to save money \u2014 should be on the hook for another $1.7 trillion? Because no one is \u201cforgiving\u201d any loans. The government is bailing out (mostly) middle- and upper-class kids who will have the means to pay their debt. If not, they\u2019re being fleeced or borrowing money for the wrong kinds of degrees. Of course, if the underlying idea was popular as leftists claim, the president wouldn\u2019t need to unconstitutionally enforce the policy by fiat.<\/p>\n<p>A strong majority of Americans also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/05\/19\/1099844097\/abortion-polling-roe-v-wade-supreme-court-draft-opinion\">oppose<\/a> overturning <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em>. (And I\u2019m sure they have exceptional legal arguments for the position.) Why not ask those voters if they believe states should be empowered to decide their own abortion policies? We know why. The polling would look completely different. A Morning Consult <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/f\/?id=00000180-b174-d337-a9cc-bbfca5710000\">poll<\/a> found that 41 percent of voters claim it is \u201cvery important\u201d for them to vote for a candidate in the 2022 midterms who supports \u201cabortion access.\u201d Do they also believe unfettered access in the third trimester should be legal? That\u2019s the Democrats\u2019 operational policy position right now. Might be worth asking voters about bills that exist, as they exist.<\/p>\n<p>Big majorities of Americans also support \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/elections\/new-polls-suggest-broad-support-democrats-voting-rights-bills-n1277837\">voting rights<\/a>.\u201d But do they support Democrats\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2021\/03\/pelosis-h-r-1-is-an-authoritarian-outrage\/\">efforts<\/a> to nationalize elections and ban photo ID requirements in all states? Do they support the federal government compelling states to count ballots 10 days after Election Day? Do they believe that Washington should force states to enfranchise felons? These are real-life components of the Democrats\u2019 efforts to take over elections. Do they support illegal immigrants voting? Because that\u2019s another position, unlike, say, \u201cJim Crow 2.0,\u201d that is <a href=\"https:\/\/boltsmag.org\/boston-emerges-as-a-new-frontier-for-noncitizen-voting-in-local-elections\/\">growing<\/a> in popularity.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats have pulled this trick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dataforprogress.org\/blog\/2021\/4\/19\/voters-support-green-new-deal\">with socialized medicine, welfare expansion, and climate change<\/a> efforts. And it\u2019s no different on guns. <\/p>\n<p>Pollsters gauge largely useless policy efforts like \u201cuniversal background checks\u201d because Democrats have made them the centerpiece of their agenda. How many people polled appreciate that a mere sliver of gun crimes are committed by those who evaded a background check (usually by breaking the law)? One suspects that most non-gun owners don\u2019t understand that virtually every firearm sold in the United States today has featured a background check on its owner. Why would they? Gun control advocates have been telling Americans that getting your hand on a firearm is easier than buying <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/issues\/obama-says-buying-a-gun-easier-than-buying-a-book\/\">books<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/zseward\/status\/1529857345056309248\">groceries<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/is-it-easier-to-buy-a-gun-than-vote-lets-hope-so\/\">voting<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Not one of the perpetrators of these recent mass shootings has evaded a background check. Straw purchases are illegal. As is <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/26\/read-the-gun-background-check-form-where-hunter-biden-claimed-he-wasnt-using-drugs\/\">lying<\/a> on your background check. As Kevin Williamson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2022\/05\/explaining-the-gun-debate\/\">pointed out<\/a> Sunday, in 2019, the Department of Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/bjs.ojp.gov\/content\/pub\/pdf\/suficspi16.pdf\">found<\/a> that less than 2 percent of all prisoners had a firearm obtained from any retail source at the time they committed their crimes. Yet, retail sources are the central target of gun controllers no matter what the facts on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>Monday, the president came out in support of banning <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/05\/30\/biden-goes-on-anti-gun-tirade-suggests-theres-no-rational-basis-for-9mm-pistols\/\">most<\/a> semi-automatic handguns in the country. Why aren\u2019t pollsters clamoring to query voters to see if they agree with Joe Biden\u2019s position? Because it wouldn\u2019t be unhelpful. Longitudinal studies show that support for gun control has <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/357317\/stricter-gun-laws-less-popular.aspx\">diminished<\/a>. Support for a handgun ban is probably quite small. Things can change. Right now, however, it is unlikely that David Hogg\u2019s views are more popular than the NRA\u2019s.   <\/p>\n<p>Now, on a personal level, the moral value of your position isn\u2019t predicated on its popularity. The problem is that the entire national conversation has been skewed in a way that rarely reflects reality. Maybe the left can fool the public from time to time, but these days it seems like they fool themselves into a false sense of political security. <\/p>\n<p>If you only got your news from major outlets you wouldn\u2019t even know anyone but murderers owned firearms. At some point, after the emotionalism and opaque <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/05\/25\/dont-surrender-to-do-somethingism-on-guns\/\">do-somethingism<\/a>, voters are confronted with the specifics of Democrat policy goals. And those specifics are always far less popular than the fantastical version offered by their allies.  \u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that 76 percent of voters\u00a0support\u00a0the Democrat\u2019s \u201cDomestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022?\u201d What kind of depraved fascist wouldn\u2019t want to prevent domestic terrorism or the prosecution of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":1894313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1498480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1498480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1894313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1498480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1498480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1498480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}