Anti-gun activists are giddy over a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showing a stunning 62 percent of Americans want to ban semi-automatic guns, which is most rifles, shotguns and handguns.
But if they think Americans support banning most firearms, they need to read further into the poll.
Most mass shooting involve handguns, so if 62 percent of Americans support banning semi-autos, you’d see the same number backing a ban on handguns, right?
Wrong.
The poll shows only 25 percent of Americans want to ban handguns, which are used more often in mass shootings and homicides.
Just 25 percent.
How can 62 percent of Americans want to ban rifles and just 25 percent want to ban handguns. How could there be such a big difference?
It seems the answer is the mainstream media.
For most American the media is their biggest source of information on guns.
That’s why most people think suppressors are “silencers” that make a high-pitched tweet, like in the movies.
And when it comes to “semiautomatic rifles” the media have gone out of their way to equate them with machine guns, reporting outright lies and falsehoods about how many rounds a semi-auto can fire.
As a result, when most Americans hear “semi-automatic” they think it means an automatic machine gun that can fire hundreds of rounds per second without ever running out of ammunition, like in the movies.
At one time banning handguns was a popular national movement, until the passage of concealed and open carry laws brought more Americans into contact with handguns.
That presents an opportunity for gun owners. If only 25 percent of Americans want to ban handguns, a public education campaign on semi-autos could gut the anti-gun movement.