Despite the efforts of 2nd Amendment revisionists to link mass shootings and urban violence with Americans’ Constitutionally protected right to bear arms, public will remains on the side of the 2nd Amendment. A recent Reason/Rupe poll is the latest survey to demonstrate that most Americans aren’t convinced that tougher gun laws have anything to do with lowering the crime rate.

The poll, released late last week, shows that 63 percent of Americans surveyed believe criminals are going to get their hands on guns, regardless of whether new laws are enacted that make it tough for people to obtain firearms.

The poll asked: “Do you think tighter restrictions on buying and owning guns would be effective or would not be effective in preventing criminals from obtaining guns?” Sixty-three percent of respondents answered “not effective,” while only 32 percent answered “effective.”

Broken down by political leanings, 70 percent of Republican respondents thought gun control is ineffective. Fifty-two percent of Democrats agreed, while only 44 percent of Democrats said gun control would help. “Nonwhite women” was the only demographic category in which more people favored gun control, by a margin of 50 percent to 44 percent.

The results suggest the massive outlay of advertising money spent by gun control advocates in 2013 hasn’t yielded much success. Despite the fact that gun control groups outspent their gun rights adversaries by a 7 to 1 margin this year, public opinion has steadily turned against gun control as a salve for violent social ills.