A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll found that nearly half of Republican respondents think that an armed rebellion may be necessary to protect their liberties in the coming years, reports the New York Daily News.
Since the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting that took the lives of 20 school children and six faculty members, the issue of gun control has been a hot debate in America. The PublicMind Poll conducted by the university set out to uncover the attitude of Americans about the issue. Since the shooting, 73 percent of Democrats feel that Congress needs to pass new laws to protect the public from gun violence. Almost the opposite was true for Republicans; 65 percent didn’t feel that new laws were necessary.
When asked in an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect certain liberties over the next few years, 44 percent of Republicans agreed, while just 18 percent of Democrats felt the same way.
“The differences in views of gun legislation are really a function of differences in what people believe guns are for,” Dan Cassino, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson, said in a press release. “If you truly believe an armed revolution is possible in the near future, you need weapons and you’re going to be wary about government efforts to take them away.”
The survey also found that 25 percent of Americans believe that the truth about the Sandy Hook Shooting is being hidden from the public with an additional 11 percent who are unsure.
“After Sandy Hook, there was a huge swell of theories claiming that it was faked,” Cassino said. “It’s easy to deride these sorts of conspiracy theories, but they seem to have found an audience.”
The poll took the opinion of 863 registered voters nationally by telephone from April 22 through April 28.