In the wake of the Lewiston shooting, we once again find ourselves debating potential gun laws.

For some people, it’s the only response they’re capable of understanding. You pass new laws because, well, it’s what you’re supposed to do.

Yet time and time again, what we find is that the laws already in place failed to stop the shooting. New gun laws aren’t likely to change that.

The question, however, is whether the American people know and understand that. If they do, then we don’t have an issue. If not, we do.

Yet a Rasmussen poll suggests that, in fact, they do.

A new Rasmussen survey conducted in the aftermath of the Maine mass shooting substantiates what the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has said for years: Americans think enforcement of existing gun laws would do more to prevent gun-related violence than passing new laws.

According to Rasmussen, 57 percent of voters say stricter enforcement of existing gun control laws would be more effective, while 30 percent believe passing new laws would do more. The veteran polling firm also found that 71 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of Independents favor stricter enforcement of current laws, while only 43 percent of Democrats concur, showing a marked philosophical difference between political affiliations.

“Rasmussen did this survey after the Maine tragedy,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “so it was definitely on everyone’s mind when they responded to the survey. We’ve maintained for decades that if existing gun laws were enforced, we wouldn’t need a constant stream of new laws, with additional restrictions on law-abiding citizens, which have really not prevented such events, as gun control proponents invariably promise when they push their latest schemes.

It also seems that 44 percent of Democrats surveyed believe you can just eradicate mass shootings, compared to just 21 percent of Republicans and 19 percent of Independents.

I hate to break it to those folks but it’s never going to happen. We see them all over the world and in nations where gun laws are far more strict than they will ever be here. It’s a people problem and it seems everyone is trying to point at the tool used as if it’s really the issue.

As noted, this poll was conducted after Lewiston, which means they were aware of the shooting. Whether they were aware of the failure of existing gun laws or not remains to be seen, but they did know about the killing itself.

Normally, gun control gets something of a bump in the wake of a mass shooting, yet here we see that most people really think we have enough gun laws already on the books, laws that should stop these sorts of things.

Yet if they’re not enforced, well…why pass new laws when the old ones aren’t being enforced? Why create new restrictions that won’t actually stop bad people from doing bad things when no one bothered to use the existing ones?

Most people aren’t absolutists when it comes to gun rights. They favor some degree of gun control. If they think we have enough gun laws, though, then there’s no going to be enough support to pass new ones anytime soon.