Americans Want President Bush and Congress to Renew the Ban

[gun-fucious]

Americans Want President Bush and Congress to Renew the Ban
10/1/2003


Press Release
Consumer Federation of America
1424 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
www.consumerfed.org

Contact:
Naomi Seligman
Phone: 202-628-7772 ext. 126

New CFA Survey Finds That Consumers Support Renewing and Strengthening the Federal Assault Weapons Ban

Washington, DC - A new survey released today by Consumer Federation of America (CFA) found that over a majority of the public supports renewing the federal assault weapons ban and supports new measures to strengthen the ban. An important finding of this survey is that a high percentage of Americans want President Bush to persuade Congress to renew the ban. Another significant finding is that a majority of gun owners supports renewing and strengthening the assault weapons ban. Results of the survey include:
Sixty-two percent said they favored renewing the ban, including 47 percent who strongly favor its renewal. Just over 50 percent of gun owners support renewing the ban, while two thirds of non-gun owners do.


Seventy-four percent of Americans want President Bush to persuade Congress to renew the ban, with more than half of all Americans calling on Bush to make a strong effort.


Sixty-three percent of Americans favor strengthening the assault weapons ban to prevent the gun industry from manufacturing commercial models of military-style assault weapons. Forty-nine percent strongly favor this action. A majority of gun owners (52 percent) supports strengthening the ban.

Susan Peschin, CFA's Firearms Project Director and author of the report, states, "Our survey research shows that a majority of the public, including gun owners, supports renewing and strengthening the assault weapons ban. Americans don't want assault weapons in their neighborhoods and they want an effective ban to keep them out."

The survey also questioned Americans about their opinions on specific measures to strengthen the federal assault weapons ban currently being considered by Congress. The measures would close the loopholes of the 1994 ban and strengthen enforcement. For example, the survey found that 86 percent of Americans, including 82 percent of gun owners, support prohibiting possession of assault weapons by juveniles. Under current law, juveniles under the age of 18 are not prohibited from owning some assault weapons. The original law, passed in 1994, bans certain models of semiautomatic assault weapons, as well as high-capacity ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. The ban will expire on September 13, 2004 unless Congress and President Bush enact new legislation.

Date of Release: October 1, 2003

anyone else remember Naomi?

VPC Communications Director Naomi Seligman

 

[Desertdog]

Was anyone on this board given this survey?
Do you know anyone that was given this survey?
I doubt if there will be a yes to either of these two questions.
Was there really a survey?

 

[Monkeyleg]

"anyone else remember Naomi?"

Remember her? I've called and given her as much grief as I could muster. Likewise her "researcher," Karen Brock. Nothing like having a sociologist on hand wearing the disguise of an academic.

Folks, the VPC has a staff of ten people. Ten! Yet they garner credibility in the press for reasons that should be obvious.

We have 200 or more learned people here on THR who can easily dissect every argument the VPC makes. And many of us do.

Keep fighting. They know they're losing.

 

[feedthehogs]

Just another lie out of a VPC puppet.l

 

[Mark Tyson]

Okay, I'm livid now.

The assault weapons ban is a useless piece of crap that has not prevented a single crime and never will. The term assault weapon itself is a fiction. These people are liars and wannabe tyrants who want to lord it over everyone else. They do this by terrifying the ignorant with phony statistics. They are aided in this job by the turn-coat gun owners mentioned in the survey who want to hang onto their engraved duck hunting shotguns but don't give a damn if everyone else gets thrown in the box for the crime of having a bayonet mount on their gun.

Must . . . stop . . . fist-of-death!

 

[Zundfolge]

Seventy-four percent of Americans want President Bush to persuade Congress to renew the ban, with more than half of all Americans calling on Bush to make a strong effort.

BOVINE-SCAT!!

You can't get "Seventy-four percent of Americans" to agree on much of anything. But when you do your surveys at DNC conventions, what do you expect.

 

[Bigjake]

I'm an american, and i wasn't asked. i demand they remove whatever % change my vote would have caused agaist the pro-renewal stat.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Just over 50 percent of gun owners support renewing the ban, while two thirds of non-gun owners do.

Especially those with multiple felony convictions.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Interesting that this would come out a few days after the CDC's "inconclusive" report on gun laws affecting gun violence...

 

[clange]

I swear to ????ing god if bush does anything to renew the ban i will vote for whomever runs agaisnt him. Hillary, gephardt, i dont care. It would probably be better if we get 'there' faster anyway. The way things are going they'll eventually eat away at it until its totally gone and no one cares. Better to make them slap people in the face and get the ball rolling before its to late, IMO.

 

[gunsmith]

I left Naomi a message

On her phone.
Asked her how she intends to take
the guns away from the folks who
own them without killing people...
violence prevention indeed!

 

[Fastlane]

For what it is worth, I agree with Clange. Why die a death of a thousand cuts?

 

[greyhound]

Seventy-four percent of Americans want President Bush to persuade Congress to renew the ban, with more than half of all Americans calling on Bush to make a strong effort.

If even 25% of those polled had any idea what the AWB is, I'll eat my hat. Though I'm sure the VPC was able to "explain" it to them.

For example, the survey found that 86 percent of Americans, including 82 percent of gun owners, support prohibiting possession of assault weapons by juveniles.

I have yet to hear anyone, on this forum or out in the world, advocate for "possession of assault rifles by juveniles". What a dumb question!
And so 18% are in favor of kids owning Bushmasters, yet only 26% don't want Bush to persuade Congress to renew the ban!

Good grief!
:banghead:

 

[Daedalus]

Therse numbers are troubling. I think we should stop debating the legitimacy of the polls and start talking about what we are going to do about it.

I was planning on laying low and hoping it would queitly sunset but apparently the VPC is not going to let that happen. There is a gathering storm on the AWB and I think our rights are in serious peril. We need an organized response to confront the unified front the VPC and other antigunners are showing to washington. Does anyone have any idea on what we can do to start an AWB sunset campaign? Posters, letters, phone calls? What can we do?

 

[cuchulainn]

CFA and VPC are related organizations. The people who founded VPC in the late 1980s came from CFA and the two organizations still have ties. It's no surprise that Seligman would move from one to the other.

 

[El Tejon]

So what? If most Americans wanted me to stop going to my house of worship of choice, does that make it okey-dokey? What if the government came out with a list of eeevil features for a religion to have? What if a majority of Americans said that persons of a certain race could not vote? What if a majority of Americans said I couldn't read certain books because they were eeevil and may hurt THE CHILDREN?

If 99.99999% of Americans wanted to ban "assault weapons", the law is still illegal. That's why we have a written BoR that NO majority may infringe upon.

VPC, we know "gun control" is not about crime. You know criminals care not one whit about gun laws.

It's about you and your fellow travellers trying to herd us into re-education camps (public schools) so we can learn how wonderful socialism is. Not now, not ever.

 

[Zundfolge]

Good poine El Tejon ... at one time the "majority of Americans" thought slavery was okay.

Thats why we live in a Republic not a Democracy.

 

[CaesarI]

Bad Surveys

I've gotten these surveys before via fax. They basically cheat by giving you one side of the story, then asking you to vote, then making you pay for the option of submitting your fax. Guess who's gonna submit their fax?

This is easy to counter in the world of politics, throw up our own poll by a national polling organization. "Given that 'real' assault weapons have been strictly regulated since 1934, and that the firearms prohibited in the 1994 law were banned purely on cosmetic features..."

Edit: HA!! They're flippin' anti-gun hardcore:
http://www.consumerfed.org/backpage/guns.cfm
they've a link on their site to: www.regulateguns.org for cryin' out loud! And they published this study like it was done by someone objective!

-Morgan

 

[jimpeel]

Consumer Federation of America webpage

So let's see what the "Federation" has to say about firearms:

http://www.consumerfed.org/backpage/guns.cfm

Consumer Federation of America Foundation (CFAF) is working to end the gun industry's immunity from health and safety regulation.

In February 2000, CFAF began work on a three-year grant from The Joyce Foundation to research and test consumer messages; develop consumer information for print and electronic distribution; and train and empower state and local consumer groups to conduct outreach activities in their communities.

Visit Regulateguns.org, a useful resource providing information to advocates, policy makers, and press about a national campaign to regulate guns as consumer products.

Yep, no agendae there.

They claim to be a non-profit organization

How to Join CFA
The Consumer Federation of America Foundation (CFAF) was founded in 1972 as a private, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) research and education organization to complement the work of CFA. The Foundation has a threefold mission: to assist state and local organizations, to provide information to the public on consumer issues, and to conduct consumer research projects.

but also claim that they do the following:

Since 1968, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) has provided consumers a well-reasoned and articulate voice in decisions that affect their lives. Day in and out, CFA's professional staff gathers facts, analyzes issues, and disseminates information to the public, legislators, and regulators.

...

CFA is first and foremost an advocacy organization, working to advance pro-consumer policy on a variety of issues before Congress, the White House, federal and state regulatory agencies, and the courts. Its staff works with public officials to promote beneficial policies, to oppose harmful policies, and to ensure a balanced debate on important issues in which consumers have a stake.

I guess that 501(c)(3) classification doesn't mean a whole lot to them. I wonder how much it means to the IRS?

They separate the "foundation" (CFAF) from the "Federation" (CFA) to get around the IRS and operate as something they are not.

 

[greyhound]

pro-consumer

Pro consumer? Does that mean that they are gonna try to make my local gun shop stop charging $600 for a Glock 17?

What? Huh? Oh never mind....

 

[makarov1]

"Banning assault weapons" sounds great to the sheeple and duck hunters, but I would venture to say that the sheeple and even many duck hunters don't have a clue that an assault weapon has either select fire or full auto feature. THE California LEGISLATURE'S DEFINITION OF AN ASSAULT WEAPON IS NOT AN ASSAULT WEAPON. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the sometimes media-slammed SKS "assault rifle" cannot possibly be an assault rifle in ANY variant because the rifle lacks a select fire feature.

Wow! Ignorance abounds.

 

[PrudentGT]

A new survey recently completed by me reports that 100% of those polled don't know anything about the 'assault weapons' ban...

 

[Justin]

Let's see, the VPC has 10 employees and yet they seem to get the word out. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the $800,000 they got from the Joyce Foundation...

 

[gunsmith]

my uncle lent me a machine gun @ 17yrs old!


Uncle Sam lent me a m16a1 with a selector switch to go to full auto
or semi auto.
but he made me clean it more then he let me fire it...

 

[CaesarI]

Politics

2 options:

1. Have the NRA, and GOA start their own non-profit branches
2. Remove these organization's non-profit status.

Is there a lawyer in the house?

-Morgan