CNN Poll: Support for So-Called Gun Control Slips in Past Month

As spotted by JWF:

How can this be when it’s become the latest obsession for Democrats and the media? Is it people see through the charade? Have people become skeptical about a group of people long soft on crime who now pretend they care about the children?

The poll’s Wednesday release comes a few hours after the president proposed background checks on all gun sales and bans on military style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines as part of a package of steps to reduce gun violence in the wake last month’s massacre, where a suicidal gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

According to the survey, 56% support a ban on semi-automatic guns, but that’s down from 62% in a CNN poll taken in the days after the shooting at Sandy Hook. The same is true for a ban on high-capacity ammunition clips – 62% in December, down to 58% now – as well as a requirement for all gun owners to register their firearms with the local government – 78% last month, down to 69% now.

But then there also the numbers involved, as Stacy McCain noted earlier this week:

NRA “fringe”? More than 4 milllion members, added 250K members in past month. @joenbc audience? 565,000. Math is hard!

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 16, 2013

And to tie this back in with CNN:

It’s enough to make any would-be cable anchorman tear up his script and go in search of a Sherman Tank or nuclear warhead. Or perhaps seek some other method of solace.

Update: Given the skew in numbers and the raging tone of the MSM, it’s worth flashing back to Jesse Walker’s brilliant 2009 article on “The Paranoid Center” at Reason. Just ignore the centrism in the title. (Although if the gang who staffs today’s newsrooms are the center, heaven help us all.)

Update (5:55 PM PST): TV ratings numbers replaced with this week’s figures. Not to mention the brutal juxtaposition in which Matt tees off on Morton Downney Morgan.