Public Opinion Survey Reveals Decline in Biden's Popularity
Gun Owners Aren't Necessarily Gun Voters
If the national election were held tomorrow, there would be a lot of people looking for work by Monday.
That’s the consensus of several opinion polls from Rasmussen and Gallup. Congress and Joe Biden are nearly as unpopular as Michael Bloomberg at an NRA convention.
According to Rasmussen, a recent poll found only 32 percent of likely voters “believe their representative in Congress is the best possible person for the job.” Forty percent said their Congressional representative “doesn’t deserve reelection.” Surprisingly, 38 percent of the same voters said their own representative does deserve to be reelected. No, it doesn’t make sense.
The folks at Gallup say Biden’s declining popularity is bringing down polling numbers for the Democratic Party. Even Independent voters are turning their backs. This goes against tradition since Independents more frequently side with the blue party, Gallup acknowledged.
What does all of this mean? For one thing, it could be a way to keep the gun prohibition effort on Capitol Hill at bay. Like it or not, gun politics is often a game of subtleties, and for one party to be losing ground among voters often results in a moderation of all their policies. This includes anything to do with firearms, which would possibly bring out a block of especially motivated (make that angry) gun voters.
More Gun Owners
September saw a continuation of increased gun buying by U.S. citizens, though it is slowing down.
The important thing is it isn’t stopping. According to raw data from the FBI’s National Instant Check System (NICS), September saw 2,326,389 background checks initiated.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) released its “adjusted” data more closely reflecting the number of NICS checks actually related to firearm transactions. NSSF concluded the September NICS checks probably involved 1,350,754 gun purchases. While that’s down 17.3 percent from the number in September 2020, this year’s checks “were the second strongest for the month on record,” NSSF said.
NSSF Public Affairs Director Mark Oliva noted, “It must also be considered that Americans continue to buy firearms for personal protection. The recent FBI Uniform Crime Report indicated that violent crime rose and Americans continue to buy firearms in response to concerns for their personal protection. Each month since April 2021 has registered as the second strongest month on record for gun sale background checks, only behind 2020, when 21 million background checks were recorded. At this pace, 2021 could be the second strongest year for firearm sales ever recorded.”
Not everyone buying guns are instantly converting to “gun voters,” but enough of them are entertaining thoughts about protecting their newly-realized and exercised Second Amendment rights to tilt the 2022 mid-term election. Watch state legislatures in January and February to see whether lawmakers looking ahead to next November get aggressive about gun control.
Tune In Nov. 3
Virginia gun owners have a chance to take back their state next Tuesday, Nov. 2, but they’ll have to turn out en masse to do it.
The big show of the year may occur next Wednesday, Nov. 3, when the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the long-awaited challenge to New York’s restrictive concealed carry permit scheme which requires a showing of “good cause” in order to exercise a constitutionally-protected fundamental right.
To own one of these in New York takes lots of paperwork. To legally carry one requires a license, and to get it you must show good reason, a requirement to be argued before the Supreme Court next Wednesday.
A lot is riding on this case because an affirmative, pro-rights decision by the high court could affect similar laws in neighboring New Jersey, Maryland and other states that cling to arbitrary “discretionary” laws allowing officials to deny carry permits on little more than a whim. Gun control zealots may see some writing on the wall. After all, it might be presumed, the Supreme Court could have easily rejected this case for review, and maintained the status quo.
Alas, the court has taken it. Would the nine justices with an alleged conservative majority have done that if they merely expect to rule in favor of the New York law?
Remember what happened two years ago when the high court—before the arrival of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett—agreed to hear a challenge of New York City’s Draconian handgun transport ordinance. City and state officials frantically scrambled to change the law before the court could have a chance to make them do it, setting a court precedent in the process.
Traditionally, the Supremes do not issue controversial rulings until the final days of their session. Don’t expect anything until late next June, right in the middle of the midterm campaign season.
Mountains of amicus briefs supporting the gun group’s lawsuit have been filed. Sponsors include attorneys general; gun rights organizations, legal scholars and historians, law enforcement groups and individuals.
Attack on the Supremes
Believe it or not, another opinion poll—this one conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania—discovered an alarming sentiment among more than one-third of Americans.
They “might be willing” to abolish the high court, or—now get this—at least “permit Congress to limit its (the court’s) power if it were to issue rulings either they or Congress disagree with.” Translation: A huge group of social dissidents want to smash one branch of the government if they don’t get their way.
Remember high school civics? Maybe it was called “American Government” where you went to school. One of the most important things taught is the three branches of government, all equal, none subordinate to the other two. Those branches are the Executive, Legislative and Judicial.
Congress enacts laws. The president signs them. The federal courts determine whether those laws square with the Constitution. That’s how it works in this country, and it’s been maintaining checks and balances for more than 230 years.
How Stupid Is That?
Late on the afternoon of Oct. 2, Seattle’s finest “spotted two men in a stolen car in the parking lot of a Northgate grocery store.” According to the narrative, as officers walked up to the vehicle “they saw that the driver appeared to have a bag of methamphetamine on his lap, and the front passenger quickly stashed something under his seat.”
The real owner of the car had given police permission to search the vehicle if it was recovered, and the cops hit paydirt. They recovered more than 30 grams of meth, a scale, and a stolen handgun under the passenger’s seat. They also found “a small amount of heroin and a baggie of small pills believed to be fentanyl.”
Later that same day, patrol officers in the city’s Pioneer Square area took guns away from two men (ages 24 and 21), neither of whom had a concealed pistol license.
This duo reportedly approached a couple and asked for a cigarette. When told “no,” a verbal altercation ensued. But words apparently weren’t enough, so the 21-year-old pulls a pistol and racked the slide, the Police Blotter explained.
About that time, cops arrived and observed the suspect stashing something under a nearby vehicle. He was arrested for felony harassment.
His older companion was arrested for packing without a CPL. He was interviewed and subsequently released, but police kept the guns.
I checked with SPD — neither gun was reported stolen. Yeah, really — neither of these guys had applied for a CPL, but still decided to carry guns in a neighborhood where contact with police is a high probability.
Can you say “oops?”
