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An obviously suspicious transaction by a would-be mass shooter. CHARGE DECLINED (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
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By Elizabeth McGuigan

With record gun sales this year, it should be no surprise that when asked about their priorities for Biden’s first 100 days as president, voters ranked gun control at the bottom. On a list of 25 potential policy changes, “legislation to restrict gun ownership” is near the lowest quintile, ranked #20. As President-elect Joe Biden is no doubt under heavy pressure from the well-funded gun control groups, it is important for him to understand the role of firearm freedoms in the United States

The top priorities are also not surprising. Controlling COVID-19 spread (69 percent of voters), vaccine distribution plans (67 percent) and COVID-19 relief legislation (66 percent) swept the top three spots. But with gun control picked as a priority by less than a quarter of voters (23 percent), other priorities also topped this misguided direction. Everything from health care reform legislation (43 percent) to climate change (33 percent) to immigration policies (27 percent) ranked above the irrational restrictions on the Constitutional rights to keep and bear arms.

Voters Top Priorities for Biden First 100 Days

The survey also asked about voters who they trust more to handle gun policy in Congress. Out of the 1,992 registered voters, the answer was split roughly in half, right down party lines.

The low ranking of gun control extends beyond what voters want to see in a Biden administration’s first 100 days. When asked how important of a priority various policies should be for Congress, voters expressed that other policy areas such as addressing COVID, stimulus, climate change and protecting “Dreamers,” or young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, from deportation.

This isn’t surprising. With a record-shattering 19.1 million background checks conducted for the sale of a firearm so far this year, Americans are taking ownership of their gun rights. Layering on gun control laws isn’t what voters are looking for.

Voters Priorities for Congress

 

Elizabeth McGuigan is Director of Legislative and Policy Research at the National Shooting Sports Foundation. 

 

 

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58 COMMENTS

  1. Everything depends on the Georgia runoff election.

    Obama moved on ‘healthcare’ fast because he had political momentum. Even if Biden gets both seats, he’s likely to focus on domestic policies first like the Wuhan Flu and economic bailouts.

    We had better pray no asshole goes on a rampage, because if that happens and he has both Georgia seats, we are fucked…

  2. Gun control? Nope, not on my list of concerns.

    COVID vaccine, masks, distancing, et al? Nope.

    Stimulus? Nope…don’t get me started on how our dollar is being destroyed.

    What I care about is the removal of all these lockdowns and restrictions. Let the country get back to work. These (mostly Democrat) Governors/Mayors/Health Directors are mucking things up.

    • Lunacy, you really need to work on your priorities. We are up to what now? About 296,000 dead that we know of. And expected to see at least another 180,000 dead in the next 60 days. And that’s our President’s own people telling us this.

      • You forgot to add the [/sarc] tag.

        Every nurse, medical technician, and doctor within my circle of family and friends – including my own doctor – have told me the MSM is spewing exaggerated stories that don’t reflect reality, and that the number of actual COVID-caused (not related, but actually caused) deaths is a small fraction of what the MSM is reporting.

        For example, a few days ago it was reported that our LASD made 158 arrests at a “COVID superspreader” party. The headline touted the danger of such a large gathering. But you had to read down through the article to get to the actual purpose of the warrant served (weapons, sex trafficking, etc.). The Department wasn’t there to break up a party for any health concerns. But FoxNews made it so. Because reasons.

      • But always try to consider the big picture, no matter how tragic each death may be. 180,000, if that happens, is about 0.055% of the US population. If you are relatively young and in decent health, your risk is far lower than that. Of course sensible precautions are certainly in order, for COVID and all the other myriad bugs floating around out there. If you are elderly and your immune system is compromised, isolation is better. But remember you are statistically far more likely to die this year of eating too many cheese burgers than you are of COVID.

      • @Debbie W: To use your logic 39740/12.1 per 1000,000/109 per day people died from firearms in 2018 per the CDC. Does that mean the President,Governors,Mayors and other Government agencies should be more concerned about those dying than those trying to survive. People die from many causes some have died because of all the emphasis on the Chinese Virus. I see you screaming at the Interweb almost daily about how the Government should stay out of Our lives and not be Infringing on people’s Rights. Is it the Governments job to decide who Rights take prescident. If one group of peoples lives is more important than an other’s. We Have To Do It if it saves lives is the same Manta that has been and is being used to Infringe on a lot of people’s Rights. Maybe You Need to do a little self reflection before you decide what priorities others should have. Peace Be with You.

      • Worldwide data from the first wave of COVID shows no correlation between economic lockdowns and lower infection rates. The virus does its thing in the general population whether you destroy your economy or not.

        Take the same precautions you’d take if you didn’t want to get the flu, let the vulnerable quarantine themselves (as I’m doing), and get back to the business of living life. Doubling down on the destruction is lunacy.

        • If only all of those senior citizens that keep dying from this would stay home for a change we could whip this virus in no time. Thank God those wise democrats are requiring curfews to keep those old people at home. Everyone knows they’re catching Covid when they’re out past midnight. Plus by forcing my business to close or imposing enough restrictions to kill my profit margin, they’re keeping me from infecting those old folks that I never interact with anyway. Now about those gyms…

        • “the virus doesn’t care about your policies.”
          and that’s the other debra; y’all got tralala’d

        • IMHO both Deb’s are equally effed up😏 Unlike the enuf iterations…and while Trump “loses” how do Republican’s gain????!!!

        • ““the virus doesn’t care about your policies.”
          and that’s the other debra; y’all got tralala’d”

          That’s quite possible.

          It doesn’t really match what real Deborah would say…

        • We shouldn’t let them implant their microchips through the fake ‘vaccination’ plan.

          Like Rush said, Covid is just the ordinary flu.

          The Covid death statistics are wildly inflated, they’re even counting people who died in motorcycle wrecks or drownings as another Covid death, fake news!

          Don’t let the tyrants in Washington force you to wear a mask and muzzle your free speech, don’t let them stop you from worshiping in church Wednesdays and Sundays, pack the pews to show that We The People are still the boss!

          Stop the Steal! Keep Your Powder Dry!

        • Yeah, it’s pretty obvious that somebody’s been co-opting Debbie W.’s handle. I’ll still reply when there’s a good point to be made.

      • Nature has a way of Culling the Herd and I believe the Democrat Party is in some way responsible for this Virus coming here!

        The Democrat Party is the Enemy of America and always has been and History Proves It!

      • Yep! Those fake covid deaths are far more important than the tens of millions of unemployed, the tens of millions of people about to lose their homes, the tens of thousand small businesses that are being wiped out, the billions of dollars of lost tax revenue, the tens of millions of children kept home from school, the thousands of people losing their lives to the massive crime wave, all of which will cause an economic and societal depression that the country will take a generation to recover from.

        Yessiree! The entire country needs to be sacrificed so old people and fatties don’t die from a disease with a 99%+ survival rate.

        In case you missed it, the above is sarcasm.

        • I’m old, and I’m fat, with disabilities, and I agree with the above post. I can and will take care of my own self, thank you very much, let’s get on with our lives.

    • I had three clients die from COVID-19 this week alone.

      Our country has now more COVID-19 deaths than WWII deaths.

      But, you know, it’s not real.

      • This isn’t a war, and making COVID out to be some super deadly scourge is creating the “it’s not real” backlash you’re talking about.

        Of course it’s real — everyone knows the virus does indeed exist. What’s NOT real is the extreme fear we’re all being railroaded into by people who stand to gain from widespread panic.

      • “Our country has now more COVID-19 deaths than WWII deaths.

        But, you know, it’s not real.”

        The US population back then was what, one-third what it is now? And spread out over about 5 years.

        I don’t argue it’s not real, but I do question what the media is saying about it…

    • My favorite is climate change, and I could give him some help, there! Wait for about 30 days after inauguration, call a press conference, and declare it’s all taken care of, now, end of subject. Thank goodness!

  3. 1992 people polled. This exactly why polls mean nothing. Assuming the population of the Our Nation is 330,000,000 this amounts to .000006% of the possible respondents. Having worked doing polling while in government I can tell you all polls are agenda driven. Questions are tailored to get a desired response or as close as possible by giving the respondent a number of possible answers. Such strongly support, support, neither support or disapprove, disapprove or strongly disapprove. Once the answers are tabulated the groups are often combined into 2 groups (approve or disapprove) and the results are published. You never hear about the neither support or disapprove responses or they are combined into the group that supports the desired agenda. Make no mistake polling never get a non desired reporting. Unless the respondents are lying which is always possible. Keep in mind like all businesses polling companies don’t stay around long if they don’t get the desired results. Keep Your Powder Dry

      • You are the kind of person pollster make a living off of. Just another number added to the bottom line. How many polls have you seen that didn’t get the desired effect for the company, agency, candidate? I can think of one polling cycle that didn’t. Hildabeast in 2016 which is a prime example of polling numbers for a desired effect that failed to materialize. How could all the pollster be so wrong? Unless they were lied to by millions of respondents or were working to a desired effect. One or two polls could possibly be wrong is a statistical set, but for almost every poll to be wrong is unlikely without either lying respondents, tabulation errors or manipulation. So believe as you want. Having been there and done that I understand how the game is played and We are just numbers used to the desired effect.

      • I am intimately familiar with the intricacies of polls. To sum them up, the results of any poll are precisely what the entity paying for the poll wish them to be.

  4. Polling means nothing. These numbers can and will be manipulated. People that follow polls will walk away with the wrong idea. These things will says what people want them to say.

  5. my wife a nurse on the ICU in Rancho Mirage. Their national data shows the number of deaths in the US over age 70 is the same in 2020 as 2019

  6. Doesn’t matter, it is at the top of the list for the democrats…who don’t care what their voters actually want…just ask black Americans who want school choice…..

    • And they are DETERMINED to keep on voting for Democrats until one of them gives them school choice. Which will be a long time, since their own kids might have to go to school in the same jungle.

  7. I’m 83 and I don’t buy into this virus B.S.! I don’t wear a mask that don’t work they don’t filter out the virus & the mask is dirty it concentrates the dirt on your face and destroys your lungs. Also did not stay home during the Lock Down & don’t social distance.
    A study by the CDC that disappeared with a couple days said 85% of the cases of Covid-19 whore a mask.
    They can take ALL THEIR LIES and shove it were the Sun Don’t Shine.
    Last I will not get the vaccinations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  8. Rejoin WHO is 6th among voter priorities.

    Countrymen, please think a little harder about this stuff. Shoveling money to an Ethiopian Marxist who doesn’t care about America should not be a priority to us.

  9. Not that Biden (let alone any other ‘progressive’ Democratic legislator) gives a shit about voter ‘priorities’ that run contrary to their agenda, ESPECIALLY when it comes to gun bans (sorry, I meant gun ‘safety’ policies). Let’s hope that all those ‘conservative’ judicial appointments McConnell’s facilitated over the last few years actually pay off.

  10. The list basically says that your average person who responded to this is a moron.

    With a singular exception pretty much everything on that list falls into the “What stupid shit would you like for Christmas, Little Johnny?”.

    I mean fucking Hell, #1 isn’t even possible.

  11. The surveyors need to rephrase the gun control question from “restrict gun ownership” to “protect legal gun ownership.” How many people who don’t support more restrictions will take any action to protect gun ownership rights? That’s the crucial question. There have been a number of posts on TTAG about first time gun owners as a result of the pandemic. But I haven’t seen followup on whether anyone is reaching out to encourage them to defend their gun through our own lobbyists and their letters and emails.

  12. “Polling Shows Gun Control Near the Bottom of Voter’s Wish List of Biden Priorities”

    That means nothing to a political party that maintains in its very platform what they’d like to do to American firearms owners, their property and the Second Amendment.

  13. Now that The National Party Front for Organized Crime is taking over in Jan 2121, do you really think what voter’s want matters?

  14. Ninety-eight percent of the poll issues aren’t even on the radar of anyone but 1192 registered progressive liberal activists.
    The only one that might be worth thinking about as a political/economic is stimulus for those purposely put into the unemployment line by the government and the rest aren’t worth a flying f*ck as issues for normal people.

  15. Just keep voting! Because the will of the people and democracy and all that!

    “Its not who votes that matters, its who counts the votes that matters.” Stalin

    “Its not who votes that matters, its who programs the voting machines.” KAMALA

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