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beevul

(12,194 posts)
Sat Nov 21, 2015, 07:26 PM Nov 2015

Half of D.C. residents want a return to citywide gun ban, poll finds

Half of D.C. residents want a return to citywide gun ban, poll finds

By Aaron C. Davis and Scott Clement November 19

Going even further and reinstating a total ban on gun ownership is most popular among white residents (62 percent), particularly whites with college degrees (67 percent) and white women (65 percent), the poll found.

It is also popular among all residents with incomes of at least $100,000 (61 percent), residents younger than 30 (57 percent) and people who have lived in the city less than 10 years (60 percent).

Support for a gun ban falls to about 4 in 10 among residents with a high school education or less, and with incomes below $50,000. African Americans, particularly those living in areas of the city that have experienced a 50 percent increase in robberies at gunpoint this year, were also among the least supportive.

“Isn’t that in the...the 2nd Amendment, no they shouldn’t ban guns,” said Idriis Bilaal, 88, who spent two decades in the Army and lives in an area of D.C. north of Capitol Hill where robberies have been on the rise. “Guns don’t kill nobody, they just lay there. A man should be able to own a gun if he wants to. It doesn’t mean he has to use it wrongly.”

Forty-three percent of poll respondents think a ban would have no impact in making the District safe; 12 percent said it would make the city less safe. Forty-two percent thought a complete ban on gun ownership would make the District safer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/half-of-dc-residents-want-a-return-to-citywide-gun-ban-poll-finds/2015/11/18/6956e7e8-8e1d-11e5-ae1f-af46b7df8483_story.html


It seems gun bans are, as many of us have said over the years, popular with the elites and the wealthy, but not so much with the average joe. In DC, African Americans are the least supportive of gun bans, according to this poll. Much more at the link.

Discuss.

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friendly_iconoclast

(15,333 posts)
4. Tularetom's conclusion is inescapable if the first 3 paragraphs linked are correct
Sat Nov 21, 2015, 11:25 PM
Nov 2015

Let me remind you of them:

Going even further and reinstating a total ban on gun ownership is most popular among white residents (62 percent), particularly whites with college degrees (67 percent) and white women (65 percent), the poll found.

It is also popular among all residents with incomes of at least $100,000 (61 percent), residents younger than 30 (57 percent) and people who have lived in the city less than 10 years (60 percent).

Support for a gun ban falls to about 4 in 10 among residents with a high school education or less, and with incomes below $50,000. African Americans, particularly those living in areas of the city that have experienced a 50 percent increase in robberies at gunpoint this year, were also among the least supportive.


Whites, the wealthy (a demographic that skews white) and newcomers (a demographic that
skews heavily white in DC these days) tend to prefer a ban and African Americans do not.

In your own words, kindly explain the disparity if you would.

guillaumeb

(42,649 posts)
11. I shall try.
Tue Nov 24, 2015, 03:00 PM
Nov 2015

The article states that 62% of white residents favor a gun ban.

The article says nothing about what percentage of non-white residents favor a ban.

Inferring that racism is behind the desire for a gun ban is totally unsupported by the evidence presented.

 

TeddyR

(2,493 posts)
5. Live in NoVa
Sun Nov 22, 2015, 12:04 PM
Nov 2015

And work in DC, and DC continues to attempt to find ways to limit its law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms while crime, including murders, has skyrocketed and is much higher than it has been in at least a decade. People are getting stabbed to death on the metro and shot walking to a pub and I'm pretty sure that legal gun ownership isn't the problem. The chief of police has stated that the vast, overwhelming majority of these crimes are committed by felons who aren't permitted to own a gun in the first place, so the strict gun laws in the district that prevent law-abiding citizens from owning a gun aren't doing good in any event.

And an important point about this poll is that support for a gun ban is down to about 50% from around 70% a few years ago. So other headlines for this poll could be "almost half of DC residents oppose a gun ban" or "support for a gun ban in DC at its lowest in decades." Keep in mind that DC residents are overwhelmingly Democrats.

jimmy the one

(2,717 posts)
7. mixing rifles with handguns
Mon Nov 23, 2015, 12:47 PM
Nov 2015

beevul: In DC, African Americans are the least supportive of gun bans, according to this poll. Much more at the link.

Right, more at the link, more popular in georgetown for sure: It is also popular among all residents with incomes of at least $100,000 (61%), residents younger than 30 (57%) and people who have lived in the city less than 10 years (60%). Support for a gun ban falls to about 4 in 10 among residents with a high school education or less,

In the event tho, the poll mixes apples with oranges, since there never was a 'total gun ban' in the district; indeed about 100,000 rifles & shotguns were legally owned during the 70's, 80's 90's to 2008. About a 20% gun per capita rate (plus a few thousand legal handguns).

reporters remark: Fifty-one percent of D.C. residents said they would like to reinstate a ban on gun ownership in the city that was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2008, according to a new Washington Post poll.

Except the heller decision was regarding dc handgun ban, wasn't it?

poll question: Do you support or oppose making it against the law to own any gun in the district?

reporter's remark: With a solid half in support of a total gun ban, the poll’s findings

reporters remark: Going even further and reinstating a total ban on gun ownership is most popular among white residents (62 percent), particularly whites with college degrees (67 percent) and white women (65 percent), the poll found.

So, by deductive reasoning, presuming a lesser ban on simply handguns would garner more support from all sides, the actual 'reinstatement of the handgun ban' would surely receive greater support than the 51% parity vote for this new style 'total gun ban'.
Question for readers asleep at the wheel: can something like a law or rule which never existed before, be 'reinstated'?

 

beevul

(12,194 posts)
9. I guess you'll never say "gun violence" again, right?
Mon Nov 23, 2015, 06:17 PM
Nov 2015

Or is mixing homicides and suicides just fine in your book?

 

TeddyR

(2,493 posts)
10. Why do you "presume"
Mon Nov 23, 2015, 06:28 PM
Nov 2015

That a ban on handguns draws more support? Nothing in the story supports your presumption.

How many crimes do you think were committed by legal owners of handguns? It is something like less than 1.

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