Barely A Majority Are In Favor Of Gun Rights. What Happens When The Next Tragedy Occurs?

Gun control support at near record lows

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Sam Rolley

Political candidates from both sides of the aisle have gone out of their way to be seen with firearms in hand in the run-up to the 2014 midterms after more than two years of anti-gun rhetoric from the White House and the left. Recent polling data reveals why: Less than half of Americans support stricter gun-control laws.

According to Gallup, only 47 percent of likely voters say that American politicians should focus their efforts on enacting stricter gun control throughout the nation. That’s compared to 52 percent who believe that gun laws are fine the way they are (38 percent) or should be made less strict (14 percent).

For comparison, when emotional calls for tighter gun control reached fever pitch in 2012 following the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, 58 percent of Americans wanted lawmakers to make gun ownership more difficult.

Support for stricter gun control is just above the all-time low of 43 percent Gallup recorded in 2011.

“Ten years ago, three in five Americans … said they favored stricter laws regulating the sale of firearms, but support fell to 44 [percent] in 2009 and remained at that level in polls conducted in the next two years. Days after the Newtown shooting, support for stricter gun sale laws swelled,” the polling agency noted. “Since 2012, however, Americans have retreated from those stronger attitudes about the need for more gun control, and the percentage of Americans who say the laws should be less strict — although still low — has edged up.”

In fact, between 2012 and 2014 support for stricter gun sale laws has decreased in almost every political and demographic group. The most notable drops in support occurred among Democrats and self-described liberals (both 8 percentage points less likely to support stricter gun control today) and women (14 percentage points less likely).

The polling data shows that Americans are particularly averse to gun control proposals that would ban handguns, the firearms most often carried for concealed personal defense. Asked whether “handgun possession should be banned for everyone except the police and other authorized persons,” a near record 73 percent of Americans dissented.