A growing number of Americans are discovering they aren’t big fans of so-called “red flag” gun laws after learning what they consist of and how they work to deny fundamental constitutional rights.
That was reflected in the results of a new study gauging the attitudes of Americans toward such laws, which allow courts to order police to relieve someone of their firearms after they are determined to be threats to themselves or others — without having the opportunity to defend themselves during the initial proceeding.
The study shows that Americans’ attitude toward such laws “dramatically changes from support to opposition when more detail is provided in the poll question about the process of gun confiscation via the legal process,” Fox News reported.
The survey of 1,000 likely voters that was conducted by the Crime Prevention Research Center initially found that 58 percent of respondents supported red flag laws after being told the “primary purpose is to allow judges to take away a person’s gun based on a single complaint when there is a concern about that individual committing suicide.”
But when survey respondents were informed that there are no hearings during the initial process to give defendants an opportunity to present their side of the case to a judge before having their gun rights taken away, and the fact that mental health experts are also not initially involved, the 58 percent support cratered to 30 percent with 47 percent opposed, Fox News added.
“Data showed that the strongest support for red flag laws came from Democrats, the wealthy, the Black and Hispanic communities and people aged 18-29,” the outlet reported, citing the survey.
“You constantly hear in the media and in the news that these polls show overwhelming support for these different types of gun control,” said John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I think a lot of it is just due to the way the questions are framed.”
He added that there is “a lot of misinformation about guns” and that the survey questions are “really biased in how they’re written up.”
The researcher also noted that the survey found that strong support for red flag laws dropped from 34 percent to just 14 percent after respondents were informed that defendants are not given any due process in most cases. Strong opposition rose from 18 percent to 29 percent, Lott said.
He added that the most recent results are consistent with those of similar studies that he has previously conducted. Lott said that Americans least informed about gun laws are most supportive of restrictions.
