Public Attitudes Becoming More Conservative on Guns and Abortion

Gee, I wonder what could be causing this?

Public attitudes on a pair of contentious national issues -- gun control and abortion -- have moved in a more conservative direction over the past year. In both cases, the changes have been driven in part by relatively large shifts among men, while opinions among women have not changed very much.

For the first time in a Pew Research survey, nearly as many people believe it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns (45%) than to control gun ownership (49%). As recently as a year ago, 58% said it was more important to control gun ownership while 37% said it was more important to protect the right to own guns.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 31-April 21 among 1,521 adults reached on landlines and cell phones, also finds public opinion about abortion more closely divided than it has been in several years. Currently, 46% say abortion should be legal in most cases (28%) or all cases (18%); 44% believe that abortion should be illegal in most (28%) or all cases (16%). Since the mid-1990s, majorities have consistently favored legal abortion, with the exception of an August 2001 survey by ABC News/Washington Post.

The proportion saying that abortion should be legal in all or most cases has declined to 46% from 54% last August. The decline in support for legal abortion has come entirely in the share saying abortion should be legal in most cases (from 37% to 28%); 18% say abortion should be legal in all cases, which is virtually unchanged from last August (17%). Currently, 44% say abortion should be illegal in most (28%) or all cases (16%), up slightly since last August (41%).

More Men Back Gun Rights
A widening gender gap is now apparent on both abortion and gun control. A year ago, a narrow majority of men (51%) said it was more important to control gun ownership, while 45% said it was more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns. Today, by 57% to 38%, men say protecting gun rights is more important.

Let me take a stab at it. On the issue of guns, could it be that more and more men have come to the realization that a metrosexual president who is more anxious to make friends with our enemies than with Republicans could be a danger to our security? A guy who so eagerly dismisses his own citizens' 1st Amendment rights to march in protest of massive government spending is also likely to dismiss their 2nd Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.

And on the abortion issue people are beginning to catch on to the real truth behind abortion: It's not about women's rights, it's about money. Protecting abortion is about protecting the billions of dollars it generates for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. The people aren't stupid.

With the government going so far left, it's not unthinkable that the people would react in the other direction on key issues.