OPINION: It's Not About
the 'Easy Availability of Guns'

A Pew Research survey published last July revealed, among other things, that 61 percent of Americans believe it is "too easy to legally obtain a gun in this country," which invariably provides an arguing point for anti-gunners, while gun owners will counter this belief is demonstrably false.

Pew went into some detail explaining how this figure was reached.

"Non-gun owners are nearly twice as likely as gun owners to say it is too easy to legally obtain a gun (73% vs. 38%)," the pollster reported. "Gun owners, in turn, are more than twice as likely as nonowners to say the ease of obtaining a gun is about right (48% vs. 20%)."

"There are differences by party and community type on this question, too," Pew added. "While 86% of Democrats say it is too easy to obtain a gun legally, far fewer Republicans (34%) say the same. Most urban (72%) and suburban (63%) residents say it's too easy to legally obtain a gun, but rural residents are more divided: 47% say it is too easy, 41% say it is about right and 11% say it is too hard."

But when it comes to an increasing number of violent crimes which seem to make headlines, the argument for making it more difficult for law-abiding adults to legally obtain a firearm goes out the window. .....