CNN Poll Shows Growing Opposition to Extension of Clinton Gun Ban

June 4, 2004

WASHINGTON, June 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- "A CNN internet poll ongoing for about a month shows there is growing opposition to proposals to extend the 1994 Clinton era ban on the manufacture and importation of certain semiautomatic firearms," John Michael Snyder, public affairs director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), stated here today.

CNN posed the question regarding the ban via its QuickVote system on May 9. As of today, about a month later, 59 percent, or 215,424, have voted in favor of lifting the ban, and 41 percent, or 152,257, have voted in favor or extending it. See http://www.cnn.com/POLLSERVER/results/10738.content.html.

Actually, noted Snyder, the ban does not have to be lifted, as it is slated to sunset, or expire, in September.

Snyder noted also that, "this is at least the second major indication in a month that there is not enthusiastic massive popular support for extending what euphemistically has been termed a ban on 'assault weapons.' The first came on Mother's Day, when the much-heralded Million Mom March in support of extending the ban degenerated into a thousand gang limp down Pennsylvania Avenue.

"There never really has been such support for the ban. When the Democratic Party in elections following the 1994 enactment of the ban lost complete control of Congress for the first time in 60 years, President Clinton admitted publicly that enactment of the ban was one of the major reasons for the astounding defeat."

Snyder said, "it is important for politicians to keep these facts in mind as they contemplate the prospect of voting again soon in the Senate on a proposal by gun-grabbing Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California to extend the ban.

"It's about time that Feinstein and other anti-gun extremists wake up to the fact that, as a study released last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stipulated, there is 'no evidence to prove gun control laws are effective in preventing violence.'"

Commentary:
It isn't just 52 U.S. Senators who need to hear this lesson. Ohio Rep. Yates and Sen. Fingerhut have introduced Ohio assault weapon ban legislation, to the delight of Ohio gun ban extremists Toby Hoover.