Support for Gun Control Down Among College Freshman

Those of us who favor limited government will weep over a poll (PDF) linked to by Kos (not often you’ll see me link to him), which shows support for big government to be widely supported by college freshman.  It’s probably not too surprising that people who aren’t yet earning paychecks, and are thus not being taxed to pay for government programs, favor more of them than those who are.  But don’t despair too much folks:

The issue that shows the greatest change from 2005 to 2006 is a decrease in support that “the federal government should do more to control the sale of handguns,” down from 78.7 percent in 2005 to 73.8 percent in 2006.

So I guess we must be doing something right, but that number is way way too high.  We need to keep this number dropping, because our rights have no future if we’re not reaching out to these types of people.  I think this is an area we EBR types have more of an advantage over the fuddies.  In my experience, young people get far more excited over a chance to learn about and shoot the same firearms they play with in video games than they are about learning to shoot a deer rifle.

I’ve introduced three college aged folks to shooting, one of which was quite afraid of guns before.  Know anyone in college who’s never had a chance to shoot?  See if they have any interest in going to the range.  You might not make a shooter out of them, but you can at least give them some knowledge and show them a fun time.  The only way we’re going to keep our rifles is to get more people involved, and make it harder for the anti-gun folks to sell people on their bullshit.

14 thoughts on “Support for Gun Control Down Among College Freshman”

  1. man… did you ever think of all the people who die from your so called “fun?” you want people to take people to a gun range to shoot guns?…. what is it with you redneck people these days? Seriously I am doing a report right now on gun control for school and i will say i strongly disagree with what your saying…. people don’t like guns because guns kill people jack ass…you can give me the whole schpeel about how people kill people but i’m gonna tell you what you have to say is bull shit because in no way would people be able to fuckin shoot eachother if there were not guns!!
    seriously now… what are you gonna get out of shooting a gun? I mean honestly, what purpose does going to a shooting range and shooting a rifle have? Go fishing… at least your not gonna shoot somebody…….

  2. Steve:

    Sorry for the delay in approving the comment. You should be able to comment unhindered from this point on. Let me just start by saying there is a big difference between people who enjoy shooting and owning guns for sport and lawful self-defense, and criminals who use guns to hurt people.

    Second, most gun owners aren’t rednecks. I live in the Philadelphia suburbs, I have a BS in Computer Engineering, and I work a professional job that pays a six figure salary. I am very very far from what most people would consider a “redneck”, and you know what? A very substantial number of gun owners also don’t fit your stereotype, are ordinary folks, that you probably interact with every day.

    I’m not going to give you the standard canned responses. It’s true that guns can be used to kill people. So can golf clubs, baseball bats, kitchen knives, and a lot of other things. You can’t un-invent technology, and the people who would use them to murder other human beings aren’t going to be stopped because the law says no one can’t own guns. Those types of people will get guns through the black market, just as those who want drugs can get them through the black market.

    Laws that disbar people of arms only disarm the law abiding; people like me and the other people who read this site. They can’t, and will never disarm, the types of people who go around around murdering and robbing people. I shoot because I enjoy it, just as other people enjoy golf or baseball. I also am interested in protecting myself and the people I love from the types of human beings who go around living life by harming others.

    I’m sorry you don’t approve of my choices, just as I’m sure you’ve made choices I don’t approve of. But whether you like it not, we live in a free society that requires us to respect each other’s choice. Just as you have a right to free speech, the rest of us have a rights too, including the right to bear arms. I’m sorry you don’t approve of that, but that’s the Constitution we all live under.

  3. did you ever think of all the people who die from your so called “fun?”

    To date: Exactly zero.

    And, Steve, learn to string together coherent sentences. And, if you’re writing a paper, some more effort toward grammar and punctuation may be worth researching.

    Your ignorance, inability to get your point across effectively, emotional blather and generally unpleasant demeanor pretty much dictate you’d be on the side of liars and cheats.

  4. SayUncle.

    kodos on the commentary. Steve completely blows his chances at convincing a majority of people by using innappropriate language and emotional appeals. When you start using these logical/argumentative flaws people start ignoring what you have to say.

    A report for school certainly doesn’t make you an expert on guns/gun control and/or crime. What sources are you using? Did you even obtain sources that argue both sides of the point or were you pretty much handfed by the folks at the anti-gun institutes. Just because a source claims “institute” doesn’t mean they have any reliability.

  5. Steve, people do like guns. Millions of people in the US alone like guns, and contrary to your assertion, none of them have been used to shoot anybody.

    Guns are not designed to kill, they are designed to hurl a projectile at speed. Where that projectile goes is the responsibility of the person holding the gun.

    Anything else is just alarmist (as you would say) bull shit.

  6. I’d say “more people have been killed by whatever than by my guns”, except that some of them are military surplus, and between the 1942 Luger, the 1914 Nagant with Finnish Army capture marks, and the 1943 M-38 carbine, I figure one of them has to have killed some poor bastard at some point – and most likely either a Nazi or a Soviet, so double bonus points.

    Now, I haven’t harmed anyone with them, let alone killed anyone…

  7. Maybe he’s trying to use you as a source, Sebastian, so he can sneak the word “hell” into his works cited. Also, if you’re reading this, Steve, I’ll proofread your paper for 20 bucks.

  8. Uh, Steve, redneck? I didn’t realize I was a redneck. I was born in Los Angeles, California and now live near San Francisco. I’m a highly educated, extremely well paid system administrator working for the #1 online search company in the world, probably the very search tool you used to do your so-called research. I spend my day working on the bleeding edge of computing.

    Yet, because I own a few guns, I am a redneck.

    Stay in school, kid. Your education is far from complete.

  9. LOL! Steve, that’s a good one! Can south asians with graduate degrees be rednecks? What a question to ponder as I check the mirror for “redness.” How about Jews with PhD’s who live downtown (like my in-laws?)? Stop, you’re making me laugh so hard it hurts!

  10. To that bootlicking scared of his own shadow Stevie boy.Your hero ted kennedys car has killed more people than my fully operational AK47 or any other of my guns. GUN CONTROL! MEANS HITTING WHAT YOU AIM AT!

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