Six in 10 Americans Support Stricter Gun Laws.
Byline: RJ Reinhart
Synopsis: Sixty-one percent of Americans support tougher gun control, down from 67% after the February Parkland, Florida, school shooting, but still higher than any other reading since 2000.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Sixty-one percent of Americans favor stricter laws on the sale of firearms, down modestly from March, when 67% said this shortly after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting on Feb. 14. The current reading is similar to the 60% measured last fall after the Las Vegas mass shooting. Along with March, it reflects the highest percentage to favor tougher firearms laws in two or more decades.
These data come from Gallup's latest survey, conducted Oct. 1-10, as the 2018 midterm elections draw near and gun control proponents have gone on the offensive to make tighter laws a major issue for voters.
Support for stricter gun control was at its highest when Gallup first asked Americans about their views on tightening firearms restrictions in 1990. At that time, 78% in the U.S. favored stricter gun control. Sentiment favoring tougher gun laws remained at or near 70% through the end of 1993; in 1994, the U.S. government passed the Brady bill and an assault weapons ban. After the passage of these regulations, support for tougher gun control waned, decreasing to 62% in 1995 and bottoming out at 43% in 2011.
Support for stricter gun laws typically rises in the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting, only to fall again as the incident fades from the public's memory. For instance, after the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, support for stricter gun control jumped to 58%, though it fell to 49% less than a year later. Despite these occasional spikes and drops, support for tougher gun laws has generally risen since 2014.
Nearly nine in 10 Democrats, 87%, are in favor of stricter gun laws, compared with just 31% of Republicans, a gap of 56 percentage points. Democrats' support for tougher gun control is little changed from the 90% who favored it in March, after the Parkland shootings. However, Republican support for tighter controls on firearms has fallen 10 points from 41% since Parkland. The Republican drop in support for tougher gun control legislation has been the primary driver of the overall drop in support for such measures among all Americans. However...
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