Conservatives oppose new gun control measures in the wake of the Florida shooting, preferring enforcement of the existing laws and allowing teachers to be armed, according to a poll by FedUp PAC.
More than 47% say that enforcing the existing laws would be a sufficient reaction to the shooting, while more than 37% favor the additional step of allowing teachers who have concealed carry permits to come to school armed and ready to protect their students.
Only 7% support a ban on bump-stocks (which have been used in only one mass shooting). There is even less support for prohibiting gun ownership by those below age 21 (5%) and outlawing all semi-automatic weapons (4%). Most pistols and many hunting rifles are semi-automatic.
As more information has become available, it has become clear that the Florida shooting was another example of government agencies failing to properly execute the existing laws. The FBI was tipped off more than a month in advance, but failed to follow its own procedures and did nothing. The shooter had a long record of hostile and even violent behavior, and was diagnosed as suffering from “mental illness”, but neither the school system nor the social services agency which investigated him nor the police who responded to complaints about violent acts reported anything that would have prevented him from buying a gun.
Liberal reaction to the shooting has demanded many gun control laws which would not have prevented the Florida shooting. Universal background checks would have been irrelevant, while banning the AR-15 would simply have left the shooter to choose from a wide variety of other rifles and pistols. Increasing the age of gun ownership would likely have been no more effective than the law prohibiting drinking for those less than 21 years old.
Congress appears likely to focus on making background checks more effective rather than laws to take guns away from law-abiding citizens.
FedUp PAC is a grass roots organization that wants constitutional conservatives to take over the GOP because Americans are fed up with the Republican establishment. It is not affiliated with any candidate or committee.