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Most Americans support the right to use deadly force to protect themselves -- even in public places -- and have a favorable view of the National Rifle Association, the main gun-lobby group, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
However, there was also strong support from respondents for background checks as well as limiting the sale of automatic weapons and keeping guns out of churches, stores and workplaces.
The online survey showed that 68 percent, or two out of three respondents, had a favorable opinion of the NRA, which starts its annual convention in St. Louis, Missouri, on Friday.
Eighty-two percent of Republicans saw the gun lobbying group in a positive light as well as 55 percent of Democrats, findings that run counter to the perception of Democrats as anti-NRA.
Most of the 1,922 people surveyed nationwide from April Monday through Thursday said they supported laws that allow Americans to use deadly force to protect themselves from danger in their own home or in a public place.
"Americans do hold to this idea that people should be allowed to defend themselves and using deadly force is fine, in those circumstances," said pollster Chris Jackson. "In the theoretical ... there's a certain tolerance of vigilantism."
The poll was conducted amid a nationwide debate over gun rights and race after the Florida shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood crime watch volunteer who is white and Hispanic.
The poll results were welcomed by the NRA, which is one of the most powerful lobby groups in the country and regularly clashes with anti-gun groups and often with Democrats as it seeks to protect and expand gun rights across the United States.
"Regardless of how others try to distort our position, the general public knows where we stand," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. "It shows the failure of the continuing efforts of many to try and discredit the National Rifle Association."
Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee, spoke to the convention on Friday, vowing to reverse what he calls the restrictive gun policies of President Barack Obama's administration.
Romney sticks to broad attack on Obama in NRA speech
"We need a president who will stand up for the rights of hunters, sportsmen, and those seeking to protect their homes and their families," he said. "President Obama has not. I will."
Eighty-seven percent of respondents -- with high numbers among both Republicans and Democrats -- supported the use of deadly force to protect themselves from danger in their home.
Two-thirds said they backed laws permitting the use of deadly force to protect themselves in public.
Gun restrictions needed, most say
According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, nearly 100,000 people are shot every year in the United States in murders, suicides, accidents or police intervention.
Government statistics show 31,347 people died in the United States in 2009 from gunshots, including 11,493 in homicides.
Ninety-one percent of those who responded to the survey agreed on the need for background checks before a firearm can be sold. Only 6 percent said they thought gun ownership should require no, or very few restrictions.
Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they supported limiting the sale of automatic weapons, and 62 percent oppose bringing firearms into churches, workplaces or stores.
"A fairly large number of Americans support strong regulation, or at least moderate regulation of gun ownership," said Jackson. "Which is sort of counter to the narrative you often hear that legislators can't touch our guns or you'll have to pay."
Nearly half of those surveyed felt crime rates were rising where they lived - even though FBI statistics show that violent crime has declined for the past 4 1/2 years.
NYTimes: NRA gathers amid growing storm over gun laws
"People's perception of crime always over-represents reality," said Jackson. "I think that indicates the mind frame that the American public is in - there's always a constant low-level worrying about street crime."
As a result, 85 percent of those polled said they did not believe police could stop all crime and 77 percent felt regular people had to "step up" to help prevent crime from happening.
The survey included 650 Republicans, 752 Democrats and 520 independents. The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online poll is measured using a credibility interval and this poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points for all respondents.
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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
So what?
Most of those NRA supporters believe what's written in the bible, they just never read it.
If they did, they wouldn't support the NRA.
God must be so disappointed...
newbook, I see that you have never read the Bible either.
newbook: Take it from one who's read it: don't bother.
The sale of automatic weapons has been severely limited since 1934. In fact, in order to own one, you must surrender your right to many of the search-and seizure laws on the books. If you do pass the background check and actually get one, the authorities have the right to come to your house at any time (no search warrant needed) to make sure the weapon is where you say it is. Automatic weapons are fun to shoot, but are prohibitively expensive to buy($10,000.00+), the license is difficult to acquire, and the ammo you go through will drive the costs up through the roof. It's just not worth it. Besides, since 1934, there have only been two cases of a legal automatic weapon being used in a crime (and one was by a police officer).
Guns are so firmly entrenched in American culture now, they can't be scaled back. All the preppers, secessionists and Alex Jonesites are just stockpiling and chugging down that Kool Aid. Your Mad Max world is waiting.
Opinionator,
Include the Founding Fathers in that group as well. I choose their wisdom over your hysteria.
Don't worry, we will still protect you.
Its not amazing that a majority think their lives are threatened by all the street thugs liberal courts have allowed to prey on all of us. Nor is it surprising that those same liberals want no citizens carrying a weapon to defend themselves against those same thugs.
C.C.: Are you actually threatened by street thugs? When's the last time that happened? And if it hasn't happened, isn't it possible that you're subscribing to some lurid popular fantasy?
if you watch or read the news everday you will see that your popular fantasy has become a reality
vietvet: A reality perhaps, but for a vanishingly small percentage of the population. I mean, what measures are you taking to avoid being struck by lightning? By the way, I do read the news everyday ( not masochistic enough to actually watch TV ), but I bring a little perspective, and resistance to hype, to the table.
According to the CDC, guns killed less people last year than drugs, vehicular accidents, and the flu and only slightly more than alcohol.
The odds that you will be killed by a gun are .015% , or about 1 in 15,000. Interesting when you consider that the odds are better that you will die from fatally slipping in the shower (1 in 3,333), being injured by a chainsaw (1 in 5,100) or getting severely hurt mowing the lawn (1 in 3,554).
Think about that...
First off, the rate I posted was all deaths from guns, NOT just homicide... the rate is half what I listed when you remove accidents (which you pointed out you can take your chances with) and suicides (which people will go through with regardless of the available means, evidenced by Australia's suicide rate INCREASING even after handguns were banned).
You are willing to completely scrap one of the original provisions of our Constitution because .008% of our population is murdered every year because of a gun. The rate is practically non-existant if you only consider crimes committed with LEGAL guns. Again quoting Jefferson, banning firearms only leaves them in the hands of the criminals.
If you perceive gun owners as having irrational fears of the boogeyman, it would stand to reason that you have an equally irrational fear of people with guns. I am not in constant fear of a fire, yet I have a fire extinguisher. I am not in constant fear of lightning, but there is a lightning rod on my house. And I am not in constant fear of getting stranded in my car in the desert on a cold night, yet I have a jug of water and sleeping bag in the trunk of my car. It's called being prepared, and it's actually a quite rational and common sense thing to do.
bbritt
"If you don't have a criminal record you should be able to carry just about anywhere you want."
Believe it or not, it is against Military Policy to have weapons in a Military Medical Facility.
The Kid in Texas comes to mind who tried to sell his handgun in Church. He didn't make sure that there was no round in the chamber and ended up accidentally killing a girl in that Church when it discharged through a wall and went into her head.
There are certain policies in place for good reason. I believe in Legal Gun Ownership, but I don't believe in Ginning up Vigilantes and Irresponsible people to buy more guns just because there is an election coming up.
Some food for thought...
Personally not concerned..I live in a great neighborhood. Never needed a gun. No need for paranoia here.
Most Americans support the right to use deadly force to protect themselves -- even in public places -- and have a favorable view of the National Rifle Association, the main gun-lobby group, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
_________________________________________________________________________________
So what? "Most Americans" are TV addicts, and subscribe to that induced culture of fear that the misperception of the direction of the actual crime rate helps illustrate. A lot of people, it seems, believe that menacing thugs are bound to target them, and harbor fantasies about saving the day in such an eventuality.
Government statistics show 31,347 people died in the United States in 2009 from gunshots, including 11,493 in homicides.
_________________________________________________________________________________
The NRA, with its steadfast commitment to public enlightenment, would have you believe that those totals represent the sum of the innocent victims ( who shoulda been packin" ) of criminals, and of crooks offed by brave NRA members "standin' their ground".
Believe it or not, it is against Military Policy to have weapons in a Military Medical Facility.
This is just an election year issue that is dredged up every election like God and Gays. It is a Wedge Issue used to divide American right before election time.
God, Guns and Gays. Look for it to come out every election and look for Voters to fall for this wedge issue each and every election while the real issues are always put to the side.
We keep falling for it every election...
I wonder how many on the poll, and how many readers and reporters/editors on this story know about the "laws limiting the sale of automatic weapons"...
Automatic weapons have been practically absent from crime in the US for decades. Any report of their presence outside of very restricted appearances is jealously prosecuted by the federal government.
You go through far more than the usual background checking and hoops to jump through and regulations. You must yearly submit records of everything in the description you own, and all paperwork applying to it. Every year, and whenever they demand, you must let federal agents into your home to inspect everything covered under such restrictions and all the paperwork and the mandated vault and security system.
Every time a news article mentions automatic weapons or machine guns or assault rifles, they're lying or they're ignorant of the important facts, unless they mention the strict federal attention such a case would bring.
Every time they mention the fictional category of "assault weapon", they're confusing the semi-auto only civilian versions of military-styled rifles with machine guns.
As the Violence Policy Center openly states, they use this deception to push for ever more stringent restrictions on things not at all like machine guns or automatic weapons.
"The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons."
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER (Syndicated columnist)
"The claim of the advocates that banning these 19 types of 'assault weapons' will reduce the crime rate is laughable...Ultimately, a civilized society must disarm its citizenry if it is to have a modicum of domestic tranquillity...Passing a law like the assault weapons ban is a symbolic -- purely symbolic move in that direction. Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation...De-escalation begins with a change in mentality. And that change in mentality starts with the symbolic yielding of certain types of weapons. The real steps, like the banning of handguns, will never occur unless this one is taken first, and even then not for decades. (The Washington Post, 5 April 1996)
Thanks for the definitions on automatic vs semi-automatic.
I can't buy the paranoid world view though.
John in Boulder you are misinformed. Any semi auto weapon with the same configuration as the military full auto types can be transformed into full auto, in some cases fairly easily. In the case of the M1A/ M14 manufactured prior to 1970 or 71 all one needed was a connecting rod and selector switch, in some cases the sear can remain original, both fairly easy to manufacture for a skilled machinist.
Just one example. I have a M1 carbine that can be easily converted to an M2.
"although actual M2 production began late in the war (April 1945), US Ordnance issued conversion part kits to allow field conversion of semi-auto M1 carbines to the selective-fire M2 configuration."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_carbine
The one I own has a very low serial number and is a winchester. It would take me no more than a couple days with the plans, which I downloaded many years ago, to convert it to full auto. I never intend on doing this as it was passed down to me from my uncle and it is fairly worn out. But to say as you did that every "scary looking weapon" is "only a semi auto" hmmmmmm you better rethink that, because........... how do you know. Guess you forgot about the assault in LA a few years back guys with full auto guns and cops with 9mm's.
North Hollywood shootout
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout
h8tparty, you are miss informed on the m14 it is classified as a automatic weapon ie. machine gun, m1a receiver is a different design and it must be modified (machine work) to fire full auto that would make it a illegal full automatic. it is also illegal to possess all the parts to do the conversion on your m1 carbine even if you never plan to install them
usa 1-4047498
Have problems with reading comprehension do you????????? LOL!
My fellow "Amercians". Oh wait, the writer of the headline for this article must be "Amercian" instead of American. Good god, how do these writers ever get jobs. Well, as most "Amercians" and Americans, I support the NRA for the simple reason that they help keep our 2nd Amendment Rights intact. I am all for background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of lunatics. Criminals will always have guns and I see nothing wrong with Joe Citizen being able to even the odds on the playing field, if they need to.
Remember when seconds count - the police are only minutes away!
Only when you really need them, otherwise, they are right behind you with their lights flashing.
Restrict the right's the police to carry Guns and 99% of black deaths will disappear
Further, America was born-ed with Birth Defect; Slavery & now the NRA
It's not the police but the gangs that cause the deaths - the police are there to clean up the mess and try to find the trigger man. Was it the police that cut down Heavy D and TP no Check it.
Police are the cause of 99% of black deaths?
Mmmm. Okay. But I'm pretty sure the NRA doesn't support slavery. It wasn't formed until quite a few years after the War between the States. "Born-ed?" lol
Thanks to the fore fathers I can say and buy I want. It's a great Country to live in. If I want to buy a gun I go to the store fill out the paperwork and they call in my information, my back ground is checked and I get my purchase take it home or to the range and use it for entertainment shooting clays or targets. It is a lot of fun and my friends enjoy it too. There are consequences in using purchases for illegal activity and I and my friends don't go that way.
Criminals will always find a way to use a tool for their activities. If you are in that mind set to harm someone else turn it on yourself and do us all a favor. The problem is when democrats get weapons their lust for power and genuine fear of others usually turn out bad for all of us. Turf wars and Drug trade are the number 1 problem watch your local news every night and it will become clear.
Wow. There must be a bunch of handwringing at MSNBC, as this flies directly in the face of the agenda they are constantly trying to shove down our throats............ Even WITH the little "anti" snippets they had , of course, to slip in.
Proud lifetime member of the NRA here. You don't want to own a firearm? That's wonderful. Entirely up to you. Now........... Stay away from my rights, please.
I am a recovering NRA member I joined over 50 years ago. I have been NRA free now for almost 40 years. I first joined to get the cool marksmanship patches that the NRA used to award, I then went on to become an instructor for our local gun club sponsored by the NRA. I got out in the late 1960's, after seeing the light. Do you honestly believe that with the addition of the 2nd amendment that if it was known that there would be shoulder fired weapons capable of destroying humans with pinpoint accuracy at a range of over 1 1/2 miles, they would have seen this amendment as necessary? And let's not forget the wording of the second amendment.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Did George Zimmerman's neighborhood watch qualify as a well regulated militia????????? Did some of these other nut cases qualify? Who do they report to, who do they report to?
Prominent militia arrests: Multiple members of the following groups have been arrested and convicted, usually on weapons, explosives, or conspiracy charges: Oklahoma Constitutional Militia, Georgia Republic Militia, Arizona Viper Militia, Washington State Militia, West Virginia Mountaineer Militia, Twin Cities Free Militia, North American Militia, San Joaquin County Militia.
"The extreme right in the United States has long had a fascination with paramilitary groups. Before World War II, right-wing and fascist groups such as the Silver Shirt Legion and the Christian Front marched across America. Later, the Cold War ushered in a new wave of paramilitary organizations like the California Rangers and the Minutemen. In the 1980s, survivalists and white supremacists formed a variety of paramilitary groups ranging from the Christian Patriot-Defense League to the Texas Emergency Reserve to the White Patriot Party."Who did these clowns report to?????????????? Obviously not Law enforcement, or the military.
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Militia_M.asp?xpicked=4&item=mm
PS
I do believe in open carry, just not concealed carry. As I stated I am a recovering NRA member, but still a gun owner, reloader and gunsmith, all for my own reasons, nothing to do with Wayne LappyHere's or Charlatan Heston's.
I have the 2nd ammendment, I don't need the NRA. They are just a paid political organization for the republican party. They been telling us for over 50 years that the democrats will take our guns away. Has not happened and never will happen and I'll tell you why, there are just as many democrats own guns as republicans, even the results of the polls on this blog show that. We are not going to give up our guns without a fight and most of us don't mind background checks, with computers it takes what, maybe 5 minutes, I'll look at other guns I can't afford for 5 minutes. And I don't want my neighbors to have automatic weapons, they could get drunk and start shooting accidentally and you don't need automatic weapons to hunt or protect your home. I'm not against a lot of things the NRA has done and many of their ideas are good, solid, common sense things, it's just they should not be a political toy of the republicans.
of course there have been no guns throughout 99% of human history. It makes one wonder how there was the development of democracy in ancient greece, how major religions like christianity took hold, how radicals like martin luther were able to convert but we do know how fascists in germany and russia were able to suppress others with guns. Guns do make you tougher than your true core. Just watch the muslims shoot them off constantly and realize just how free they are.
Good points.
Crickets.
DEATHS FROM DOCTORS MISTAKES/ERRORS ---- 195,000+ per year
195,000-200k each year 2000, 2001, 2002
(source: Medical News Today, MNT)
-----------------------------------------
That's the usual avg. per year from Doctors ""killing" people
So Do we BAN DOCTORS? ---- They cleared KILL more folks than firearms per year
Apples oranges argument there. I doubt the doctors were intentionally killing people or that those accidental deaths would be considered homicides.
First Romney was an avid hunter, then oops, not so much. Then Romney owned guns, then oops meant
he was going out to buy some. Romney says he does not line up with the NRA, then ooops he is a long
time supporter... ya fool some of the people sometimes, and the NRA and it's members anytime.
I bet not one of them ask about his flip flops on these issues.
And he was a main guest speaker at the NRA. Guess it was because he hunted all those "varmints." He gave his speech in St. Louis of all places. Video abound on his flip flops on gun control.
More politicians pandering to the NRA. I smell the money.
***********************************************************************
Amercians
MSNBC------------ HIT SPELLECHECK every so often....
MSNBC------------ NOT smarter than a 5th grader in SPELLING,,,,,,,,,,,,,, LOL
...yeah, do that.
You "missed" the whole point of spellecheck,,,Have some coffee first
You missed mine.
Fact: there are 33,000 gangs in the USA with a membership of 1,400,000(one million four hundred thousand). these gangs are organized, they are armed and they are criminals. Law enforcement is unable to control or contain them or disarm them. When the USA goes bankrupt we the people will have to fend for ourselves to protect our property and lives. Militia's will have to be organized for civilization to survive. Of course this has no meaning to those who have rendered basic math and economics politically incorrect and those in an entitlement state of mind.
MSNBC totally re-wrote the Reuters new service article and mispelled then MISPELLED THE HEADLINE.
They added in their OWN anti-gun spin. The orginal un-altered REUTERS News article HAS A COPYWRITE.
MSNBC ADDED in a few MORE of it's own paragraphs to the copywrited REUTERS art.
-------------------------------
It's really pathetic when a "news" organisation MSNBC ( chuckle ) slants anothers article to fit their own agenda
Check out the ORIGINAL UN-TOUCHED REUTERS ARTICLE, I can't post it over here for some reason.