ISRA: Survey Results Show Gun Owners Do Not Support Gun Control And Don't Trust Politicians

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Mar 18, 2013, 08:14 ET

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., March 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was released today by the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA):

A weekend internet survey conducted by the ISRA reveals that gun owners solidly support the right to keep and bear arms and overwhelmingly reject gun control schemes currently before Congress and the Illinois General Assembly.

The survey was accessible from the ISRA's Internet page and was also distributed by way of the ISRA's e-mail alert service. In all, more than 4,500 individuals responded to the 50-question survey over a two-day period. Of those 4,500 respondents, 97% reported that they owned at least one firearm.

Survey results indicate that recent gun control proposals are not very popular with gun owners. No less than 99% of respondents expressed opposition to banning AR-15 style rifles. Similar majorities oppose banning AK-47 style rifles and other semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns.

Proposed regulation of ammunition also failed to garner support among those surveyed. A full 99% of respondents oppose limits on how much ammunition a person could buy. Similar numbers oppose registration of ammunition purchases, microstamping of cartridges, and ammunition taxes to pay for crime victim medical bills. Contrary to what is reported in the media, 98% of gun owners surveyed oppose limits on the capacity of rifle, pistol and shotgun magazines.

Background checks were also unpopular with those surveyed. Results show that two-thirds of respondents oppose background checks on private gun sales – even if the government was required to destroy all records of the background checks.

Much of the gun control movement's standard wish list found little support among respondents. Gun owner licensing met with 95% opposition while both gun registration and mandatory liability insurance for gun owners are opposed by 98% of those who took the survey.

The ISRA survey results also revealed some significant credibility gaps as witnessed by the fact that less than 5% of respondents feel that the police could protect them from crime. Less than 8% feel that gun control effectively thwarts crime while less than 20% of respondents feel that gun control organizations are acting in good faith. About 90% of respondents feel that politicians who promote gun control are only doing so for political reasons. The credibility of the press took a hit as 97% of respondents feel that media is biased against private firearm ownership. Less than 1% of respondents identify with the policies of big name gun controllers like Rahm Emanuel, Chuck Schumer or Michael Bloomberg.

The survey results show that personal safety was an important issue to respondents. Just over 80% of respondents feel that they could become the victim of violent crime while about half feel unsafe travelling outside their neighborhoods. These concerns most likely drove the 99% support for allowing law-abiding citizens to carry defensive firearms.

"We've been a bit skeptical of the reports in the media claiming that firearm owners support gun control," commented ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. "Although our poll was not strictly scientific, it tends to support what we know intuitively. That being that firearm owners stand strongly by the 2^nd Amendment while eschewing gun bans, licensing and registration. We are happy with the overall results of the survey. We did find it unsettling however that about 75% of respondents say they feel less welcome in the United States than they did 5 years ago. Sad, but given the current political climate, those feelings are understandable."

The ISRA is the state's leading advocate of safe, lawful and responsible firearms ownership. For more than a century, the ISRA has represented the interests of millions of law-abiding Illinois firearm owners.

WEB SITE: http://www.isra.org

SOURCE Illinois State Rifle Association