Which is the biggest threat? Government, labor or business? (Photo: Gallup)
As much as gun owners like to rag on the non-gun owning public for being low-information, disengaged sheeple, the truth is that they are more awake than we might initially suspect — at least if we are to believe the results of Gallup polling.
A Dec. 2015 Gallup poll found that when asked to choose the biggest threat to the country in the future, 69 percent of respondents chose the government. While that number is overwhelming, it’s actually down from 73 percent in 2013 the last time Gallup surveyed that question. The other two options, big business and big labor came in at 25 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
Seventy-five percent of respondents also received widespread corruption in the government, according to Gallup, and back in June, only 8 percent said they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress. Moreover, half said the federal government poses an immediate threat to rights and freedoms.
When the issue of guns is thrown into the mix with all the other issues Gallup polls, it consistently ranks toward the bottom at about 2 percent. In other words, only 2 percent of Americans believe that guns are the biggest problem facing the U.S.
I guess we can find some solace in these results, right? The public does — on some level — get it! The government is the biggest existential threat to our free society — not guns!
Only 2 percent of Americans believe that guns are the biggest threat that this country faces. (Photo: Gallup)
What’s fascinating, though, is how out of touch the Obama administration is given these results. Think about it. Obama’s big announcement heading into 2016 had nothing to do with reforming government, balancing the budget, creating jobs, addressing immigration or fixing healthcare. Nope, none of those top, legitimate concerns were on the Obama agenda. Instead, he led off the new year with executive orders designed to chill the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners and gun dealers.
It really goes to show where the man’s priorities are. Obama wants to make gun ownership, and the act of transferring, buying and selling guns, more troublesome because he knows that when you make something difficult, you begin to make it impossible. The more hoops one has to jump through, the more money one has to spend, the more time one has to invest to exercise a right, the less likely one is apt to do so.
Since Obama can’t confiscate every firearm from every gun owner in the country, he is taking the methodical approach. Make gun ownership costly, make it time-consuming and make it difficult and fewer people will have an opportunity to keep and bear arms. Then, as the gun community shrinks it becomes easier and easier for his gun-grabbing successors in government to disarm the public. After all, few people will complain when the government takes away a right that many no longer value. It’s part of the reason people say, a right not exercised is a right soon lost.
In the coming years, we need to keep spreading the gospel of guns. We need to keep monitoring public sentiment on the 2A. And most importantly, we need to show up at the ballot box. We can’t afford to keep putting anti-gunners in the oval office or in Congress or in the courts.
When I hear the words common sense gun laws used by politicians who know nothing about firearms, have never purchased one and are claiming to be experts I just cringe. We have open borders, the threat of terrorist attacks, and the fix is more loss of freedoms and more “common sense gun control laws”.
Really when are we going to hold our elected officials accountable to their oaths of office instead of their personal addenda’s? Why is it party politics along party lines if it is the will of the people?
Maybe the reason people don’t trust the government is because they don’t believe what they are seeing and hearing is the truth. We the people want straight answers not politically correct confusing language or a speech berating our views or political affiliations. When I have asked questions from my elected officials I get a form letter response that does not answer the question asked. Why? Political correctness! Maybe we don’t need career politicians, what we need is people who will listen to the people they represent, and will work with other elected people regardless of party affiliation.
I’m still trying to figure out the difference between political common sense and my views. I believe we are the common sense views for some future utopian society that people don’t want now. The arguments that the founding fathers did not intend for people to have the weapons that exist today. Under that logic we would only have flintlock rifles and pistols if in fact the United States still existed. No the founding fathers knew their history and wrote the second amendment knowing where they came from in the past and the direction they wanted to head in the future.
Our world is changing and so are the threats, I would expect our elected leaders to keep up with the times and adapt. Tell it like it is not how you think it should be. Drop the political correct rhetoric you might gain that trust back.
The Government knows this, but many idiots out there do not. The Gov. has to disarm “We The People” asap before many American sleeper’s wake up… .
The message is clear. Buy guns, buy ammo, and prepare for government overreach that will make Obozo’s efforts seem childlike. I still hope that elections will shrink government and stop it’s efforts to micro manage society but now it is only a very slim hope. Government has divided us into two camps of white skins and brown skins. If civil society collapses along those lines it will be martial law and gun confiscation.
I have heard talking head Republicans condemning this executive order, but I’ve noticed how no one is prepared to do anything. Trampling the Constitution. It’s not just for Democrats anymore.
Trust in Congress has declined steadily since 2000. The original probable cause is inability to form a budget due to perpetual unnecessary war in the Middle East. The decline into single-digit trust can be directly attributed to the establishment of the Tea Party Caucus whose sole objective was the obstruction of government. Their success in meeting this goal so destroyed America’s confidence in its legislative process that the Caucus had to change its name to the Freedom Caucus.
Unless it is your intent to overthrow the Constitutional government of the United States, your alternative is to follow the Republican process and elect people that you trust to Congress. If there are no people that you trust running for Congress, then YOU run! You do not have the right to live in a participatory deomcracy if you are not willing to participate.
The Gallup poll is a false choice. It does not include ‘income inequality’, ‘Muslims with machine guns’, nor ‘poison ice cream’. Perhaps if it had said ‘Wall Street’ instead of ‘Big Business’, the results would have been less tempting to propagandize over.Trust in Congress has declined steadily since 2000. The original probable cause is inability to form a budget due to perpetual unnecessary war in the Middle East. The decline into single-digit trust can be directly attributed to the establishment of the Tea Party Caucus whose sole objective was the obstruction of government. Their success in meeting this goal so destroyed America’s confidence in its legislative process that the Caucus had to change its name to the Freedom Caucus.
Unless it is your intent to overthrow the Constitutional government of the United States, your alternative is to follow the Republican process and elect people that you trust to Congress. If there are no people that you trust running for Congress, then YOU run! You do not have the right to live in a participatory deomcracy if you are not willing to participate.
The Gallup poll is a false choice. It does not include ‘income inequality’, ‘Muslims with machine guns’, nor ‘poison ice cream’. Perhaps if it had said ‘Wall Street’ instead of ‘Big Business’, the results would have been less tempting to propagandize over.
Its was tyrants like our current Mullah in Chief that inspired our FOUNDING FATHERS to compose the Constitution and include the second amendment. The second amendment? Listed right after the first amendment , freedom of speech, the right to own and bear arms was there because those wise men knew the threat of government oppression was very real and the citizenry had to be ready to defend its freedoms. Its a shame that a Constituional Lawyer would not know and respect that, He is the failed Grand American Experiment.
Some of America thought that he was GOD’S gift to America,(NOT ME) I knew he was a phoney the first time he opened his mouth. I don’t care what color he is, he does not tell the truth to the American people and talks out of both sides of his mouth. And REALLY he has no clue as to whats going on!
There is a method to the madness. A Government can help the citizens, but it can also hurt them.Those voted in public office on any level ,forget who their working for = WE TH E PEOPLE !
Exactly! Obama has to make an executive order because congress won’t support his agenda, and he whines about it all the time. If I remember correctly, congress represents the people, they, in the case of Second Amendment attacks, appear to be supporting the constituents. Obama wants a Marxist state.
Again- to those who “care” but don’t vote- thanks for nothing and far worse ~!
The people might see the problem, but their apathy in voting will be their undoing. As they are standing in line at their Neighborhood Security Center to get their monitoring implants, then they’ll see it, but of course it will be too late.
I can only hope that these results are reflected in this year’s elections. We can’t let the libtards stay in power. Our country won’t survive 4 years of Hillary and her cohorts. Let’s tell them in a loud and clear voice-LEAVE OUR RIGHTS ALONE!!!!!