Emphasis mine:
Snapshot: Majority in U.S. Now Oppose Ban on Assault Rifles
Americans’ support for a ban on semi-automatic guns in the U.S. has dropped eight percentage points from a year ago, when opinions were more evenly divided after the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Last year’s measure was unusually high for the trend over the past several years; the current 40% is back to within a few points of where it was between 2011 and 2016.
…The current 40% support for an assault rifles ban is below the historical average of 47%. The latest data provide further evidence that public opinion typically shifts to higher support for tougher gun laws in the aftermath of a traumatic national event such as a mass shooting, but gradually reverts to prior levels as the memory of it fades.
I understand the numbers but the phrasing is AWFUL and once again, we see that folk yammering about stuff they don’t know about. Assault rifles are NOT semi-automatic guns, they are “select fire” capable which can fire in that mode (1 trigger pull, 1 round fired) but also burst mode (usually 3 rounds fired per single trigger pull),a full automatic mode (1 trigger pull; multiple rounds fired in succession) and have the ability to be in semi-automatic mode , burst mode known as “selective fire”. These are illegal to be owned by citizens UNLESS they have undergone an extensive Federal background check, fingerprints, and a special license being issued to them. Those automatic rifles are also very expensive as citizens are no allowed to buy modern machine guns (“automatics”).
What I believed they meant were semi-automatic rifles (which anti-gunners like NH State Rep Katherine Rogers call “assault weapons” – a completely fake and made up marketing name).
And they are wrong about “semi-automatic guns” with the innuendo that they only involved “long guns” (or rifles) – most handguns in the US are semi-automatic.
(H/T: Brietbart)
