A majority of Republicans (69%) expect crime to rise under incoming President Joe Biden, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey released this week.
The revelation will likely add new momentum to gun and ammunition sales, which skyrocketed during 2020, leaving shelves bare at gun shops and sporting goods stores. Last year saw homicides spike in several major cities, and months of social unrest that included riots, looting and even murders, while liberals talked seriously about defunding local police agencies.
According to Rasmussen, Republicans “expect a nationwide crime increase under Biden, compared to 20% of Democrats and 39% of those not affiliated with either major party.”
This disparity in opinion underscores the widening division of thought between the right and left.
The Rasmussen survey also found that, “Among Americans who say the amount of crime has been higher in their communities during the past year, 59% expect crime to increase nationwide under Biden’s presidency. That’s more than 20 points higher than for Americans who say the amount of crime in their community has been lower or remained the same in the past year.
“Calls for defunding the police have been aggressively championed by the Black Lives Matter movement,” Rasmussen added, “but even among black Americans, 51% are opposed to defunding the police in their home community. Sixty-nine percent (64%) of whites and 58% of other minority adults share that view.”
So, people are continuing to head for the gun stores. Last year, according to raw FBI data, there were 39,695,315 background checks initiated, though not all were for gun sales.
According to Mark Oliva with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the “NSSF-adjusted” data shows more than 21 million of those background checks were initiated as part of an actual gun sale. This is 60 percent above the 2019 figure and 34 percent more than the previous record year in 2016.
“NSSF estimates that more than 8.4 million people legally purchased a firearm for the first time in 2020,” Oliva said.
As noted by Rasmussen, “Opposition to calls from the political left to defund the police remains high. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Americans now oppose reducing the police budget in the community where they live to channel that money into more social services.”
With all of these factors in play, a rise in crime under Biden could be the first chink in his armor the press will be unable to ignore.
