The majority of Americans support universal background checks for firearm purchases, according to a survey conducted by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy.

Some 86% of Americans support Congress mandating universal background checks for all firearm sales and purchases, the poll claimed, while a bipartisan majority support gun licensing instead of constitutional carry.

Gun Owners of American Senior Vice President Erich Pratt said in remarks to The Sentinel that election records show the lackluster quality of surveys showing massive support for gun control.

“One has to question the legitimacy of these polls, given that whenever these proposals are put on the ballot, they never get anywhere close to reaching the fake survey results that are generated by these pollsters,” he said. “Oregon voters recently passed some of the restrictions referenced in this poll, but they only did so by a razor-thin margin. They couldn’t even garner 51% in a deep blue state!”

Universal background checks are lauded by proponents as an answer to keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals, but critics say they have instead hindered innocent people from being able to defend themselves due to the waiting period.

There were 76,000 initial denials for firearm purchases in 2010, but only forty-four were found to be qualified for prosecution, and only thirteen of the denials were criminals. Twelve people were prosecuted in 2017 for attempting to illegally purchase a firearm out of 25 million background checks, according to data from the United States Government Accountability Office.

The Office of the Inspector General additionally found in 2016 that the Justice Department proceeds with an average of thirty-two firearms prosecutions per year. Studies show that most criminals do not go through the typical, legal process to obtain firearms. Additional studies have shown that background checks have not been effective in reducing suicide or homicide.

“Public opinion cannot be allowed to trump individual rights. The tyranny of the majority is incredibly dangerous, just as polling can be, as all it takes is a change in the wind to alter views,” Pratt continued. “We cannot allow fundamental freedoms to be dictated by leading questions from politically-driven pollsters.”

Despite the recent poll results, the majority of states now have constitutional carry legislation, most of which have passed the systems within the last six years.

Article by Amy Joe Underwood, The Sentinel 

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