'Armed revolution to protect liberties' may soon be necessary, 44% of Republicans say
A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll found nearly half of Republican respondents believe a gun-fueled rebellion may soon be a reality. Only 18% of Democrats agreed.
By David Knowles / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, May 1, 2013, 7:32 PM
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Philip Kamrass/AP
Nearly half of Republican voters beileve that armed revolution may soon be coming to the United States, a new poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University has found.
Think of it as an alternate definition for the term “gun control.”
Nearly half of all Republicans surveyed said they believed that “an armed revolution in order to protect liberties might be necessary in the next few years,” a new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University found.
While 44% of registered Republican voters indicated that they believed armed rebellion would soon be a reality in the U.S., just 18% of Democrats agreed. As for Independent voters, 27% indicated that guns would soon be used to settle the country’s political problems.
The partisan gap on the question of whether armed revolution will soon play a role in America’s political history mirrors the differences in opinion on gun control. While 50% of those surveyed said that new gun control legislation was necessary to protect the public, just 24% of Republicans said new laws were needed. A whopping 73% of Democrats favored new legislation, the survey found.
“If there was a bipartisan moment after Sandy Hook to pass gun control legislation, it’s past,” Dan Cassino, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson, said in a press release. “Partisan views have strongly re-asserted themselves, and there’s no sign that they’ll get any weaker.”
Conspiracy theorists would also seem to have partisan leanings, according to the poll. Asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement: “Some people are hiding the truth about the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in order to advance a political agenda,” 45% of Republicans said they either agreed or weren’t sure, compared with 29% of Democrats.
“The differences in views of gun legislation are really a function of differences in what people believe guns are for,” Cassino said. “If you truly believe an armed revolution is possible in the near future, you need weapons and you’re going to be wary about government efforts to take them away.”
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