‘Is It Time For Republicans to Pivot?’ Fox Reacts to Poll Finding Americans OVERWHELMINGLY Back Gun Laws
A new Fox News poll offered some stunning takeaways on Americans’ views of gun restrictions, which appear to fly in the face of much of the punditry on the network.
One of the key takeaways from the poll published Thursday night was the finding that 61 percent of Americans surveyed are in favor of banning all assault weapons, while only 45 percent of Americans believe more citizens carrying guns is a solution to lowering gun violence.
The idea that more “good guys” carrying guns will lower gun violence has been a popular talking point on the right for many years.
Broken down by partisan affiliation, however, 61 percent of Republicans believe more citizens carrying guns will lower gun violence – while only 27 percent of Democrats agreed.
Additionally, the poll found that the vast majority of Americans are in favor of additional gun buy restrictions:
— Requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers (87%)
– Improving enforcement of existing gun laws (81%)
— Raising the legal age to buy a gun to 21 (81%)
— Requiring mental health checks on gun buyers (80%)
— Allowing police to take guns from those considered a danger to themselves or others (80%)
— Requiring a 30-day waiting period for all gun purchases (77%)
“At least half of gun-owning households favor each of the gun proposals tested,” added the summary of the poll from Fox News digital.
Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney briefly covered the poll on air Friday. “Let’s get to the new Fox poll. We’re talking politics here. It reveals a majority of voters want more restrictions on gun ownership. Only 45% believe more people having guns will reduce gun violence. Another Fox poll shows 56% of voters believe abortion should be legal. Sean Duffy joins me. All right, Sean, is it time for Republicans to pivot on these sensitive issues?” Varney asked.
“So first off, on abortion, Stuart. No. I mean, listen, you’ve had the media pound this idea of freedom with regard to abortion. And when you look at the issue of abortion, it’s not just are you pro-choice or pro-life? Right. This poll might show that a lot of voters are not exclusively life voters, life at conception, but they’re also not late-term partial birth abortion, let’s kill babies after birth, which is where the Democrat Party is,” Duffy replied, repeating a widely debunked talking point that Democrats want to kill babies after they are born.
“So I think there’s some confusion, I think a lot of voters fall into. You know, maybe the heartbeat bill, maybe about 12 weeks, maybe eight weeks with regard to abortion, but banned after that. This poll doesn’t really dig into it,” Duffy added.
“In regard to guns, listen, I think if you’re under 35 years old, 33 years old, you’re opposed to the Second Amendment and a lot of gun ownership because you’ve been taught that in school, the schools have been indoctrinating our children. I’ll look at our founders. This is not about deer hunting. This was about freedom, making sure you didn’t have a tyrannical government. And they wanted the people to be able to have the right to bear arms,” replied Duffy, dismissing the poll.
“Okay. Maybe there’s some requirement that the Republicans pivot a little. Bearing in mind there were the elections in Wisconsin and Kansas, which featured abortion and liberalism. Anyway, I’ll move on,” Varney concluded.
The Fox News poll was conducted between April 21st and the 24th among 1,004 registered voters nationwide and carries a margin of error of 3 points.
Watch the clip above via Fox Business.
