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December 20, 2023
By Mark Chesnut
Lawful gun owners have long said that Americans need to own firearms to defend themselves and their families from violent criminals. Of course, that assertion has always drawn the standard rebuke from gun-ban advocates that such a thought is “out of touch with reality.”
Interestingly, data derived from a recent poll shows it isn’t gun owners who are out of touch on the matter. Findings from a recently released Harris/Harvard CAP poll reveal that a large majority—63%, in fact—of respondents believe Americans need to own a gun to protect against criminal attack. And it wasn’t just the 77% of Republicans who answered in the positive. The results showed 54% of Democrats and 56% of independents agreed with that assessment.
While the fact that 63% of Americans think people should own guns for self-defense probably jolted gun-ban advocates, the poll also revealed more bad news. Sixty percent of respondents think crime is getting worse instead of better, including 71% of Republicans, 65% of independents and 47% of Democrats. Further pointing out Americans’ concern over violent crime, the poll further showed that 67% of respondents supported removing district attorneys that are pulling back on prosecuting violent offenders. Even 64% of Democrats approved of removing soft-on-crime DAs.
Aside from firearms and violent crime, the survey also revealed some other interesting trends. Only 35% of respondents believe the country is “on the right track,” less than half approve of the job President Joe Biden is doing and only one-third approve of the way Congress is doing its job. The survey, conducted online by The Harris Poll and HarrisX, questioned 2,851 registered voters. Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, education, political party, and political ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.
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About the Author Freelance writer and editor Mark Chesnut is the owner/editorial director at Red Setter Communications LLC. An avid hunter, shooter and political observer, he has been covering Second Amendment issues and politics on a near-daily basis for nearly 25 years.
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