A recent PEW poll shows a majority of people support gun rights over gun control.

[flamin lib]

53 to 46%.



However the very same polling firm shows very strong support for actual gun control policies;



How can this be? PEW has been asking the same questions with the same wording for decades so how can support for both gun control and gun rights be explained?

PEW attempts to give perspective in this response to criticism: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/09/a-public-opinion-trend-that-matters-priorities-for-gun-policy/

The thing that struck me was the heightened polarity on the topic, particularly in the political arena. Since the NRA became a gun sales tool instead of a gun safety and training organization the response to any policy change has been an absolute stone wall. Want background checks? NO! It's a step to confiscation. Want tagants in explosives? NO! It's a step to confiscation. Want anything at all? NO! It's a step to confiscation.

The response to everything is the same: they want to take all the guns away.

Faced with that as a choice; gun control of any kind = take all the guns, most people will want to protect gun rights. I would if that were the only choice. The NRA, as chief advocate for the gun lobby, has successfully sold that concept to the public. Like the ACA that is popular but Obamacare isn't.

Advertising works and since 1977 the gun lobby has been selling this absolutism. The truth is that the public wants to limit who can have access to guns if it a reasonable limitation. Should people on the terrorist watch list be able to buy guns? Should people with a restraining order against a spouse have guns? Should all people buying guns have a background check? Should there be a limit on the size of magazines?

All reasonable and all opposed by the gun lobby because it's a slippery slope to confiscation.