Little Change in Gun Control Opinion After Vegas Concert Murders
Kevin Felts 10.24.17
On the night of October 1, 2017, a murderer opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest music festival, which was next to the Las Vegas Strip. After the shooting was over, 58 people were dead and more than 500 were injured. In the following days, numerous news agencies (who have a reputation for promoting an anti-gun agenda) used the tragedy to call for stricter gun control legislation.
Tragedies such as this cause emotions to run wild. As people calm down and look at the situation from a logical point of view, they realize that many things the gun-grabbers are calling for are already on the books.
As we talked about in a previous article, some of the gun laws being called for already exist. We already have background checks and age restrictions; people with family violence convictions, restraining orders, and certain mental conditions are barred from buying guns.
So, when an article was posted on The Christian Science Monitor saying: Poll shows little societal change over gun control after Las Vegas shooting, it should not be surprising.
The survey was conducted from Oct. 12-16, about two weeks after Stephen Paddock fired on a crowded musical festival taking place on across the street from his hotel room, killing 58 and wounding more than 540 before killing himself. […]
In this latest survey, 61 percent said the country’s gun laws should be tougher, while 27 percent would rather see them remain the same and 11 percent want them to be less strict.
That’s similar to the results of an AP-GfK poll in July 2016.
So, not much has changed between July 2016 and the weeks following the Vegas shooting.
What is rather surprising however, is how numerous news organizations used the tragedy to promote their anti-gun agenda and utterly failed to change public opinion.
From News Busters: Exploiting Vegas: Nets Advance Anti-Gun Agenda 5 to 1.
In the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting massacre, the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks wasted little time in exploiting the tragedy to advance their anti-gun rights agenda.
In just six days (October 2 through October 8) of coverage, the networks filled their evening and morning show programs with statements favoring gun control over gun rights by a ratio of roughly 5 to 1.
The question is, why didn’t public opinion change after the Vegas shooting?
- Are both sides so entrenched that neither one is moving?
- People realize anti-gunners are full of hot air?
- Social media allows people to dispute how effective gun control is?
Regardless of the reason, it is nice to see the liberal-controlled media being so ineffective at swaying public opinion.
