Poll: Support for stricter gun laws is dwindling

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It’s a good day for the NRA and gun rights activists. Two recent polls from Rasmussen and Gallup indicate that Americans increasingly oppose stricter gun laws.

Rasmussen Reports in a survey conducted earlier this week shows that 39% of Americans want stricter gun laws against 50% who are opposed to such a measure. Previous surveys suggested that citizens were narrowly divided on the topic making the new margin of eleven-percentage points noteworthy. Women continue to be evenly divided on the topic but men oppose stricter laws by 23%. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats (65%) are in favor of tighter restrictions but 69% of Republicans and 62% of those unaffiliated feel differently.

71% of Americans believe the second amendment to the U.S. constitution guarantees their right to bear arms. Just 13% believe the constitution does not make gun ownership the right of the average citizen. Nearly seven in ten Americans (69%) also do not believe that city government’s have the right to prevent their citizens from owning guns with 52% of Democrats in agreement, 72% of unaffiliateds and 87% of Republicans.

The loudest shot fired comes from a Gallup poll released just this morning. According to the survey a new low of just 44% of Americans say that laws covering firearm sales should be stricter. That total is down from 49% earlier this year and indicates a steady decline from its peak in 1990 when 78% of the public favored stricter laws against firearm sales. That peak perhaps coincided with the steadily growing number of handgun related deaths in the United States in the early-90s. By late-1992 the number had grown to a record high of nearly 14,000. By 2001 the number had been reduced to around 8,000 with only a minor spike in that total in the years since.

Gallup also shows for the first time the number of those who want laws covering the sale of firearms more strict is nearly identical to the 43% of Americans who want to keep laws as they are now. There is also a small spike in the number of those who would like to see current laws become less strict (12%), up from just 2% in 1990
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Also at a record low are the numbers of adults who want a ban on the possession of hand guns from use in the general public. Just 28% agree with that stance, down from 40% ten years ago and from a whopping 60% since Gallup first began tracking responses to the question back in 1959. In terms of gun ownership the numbers throughout the 2000s remain relatively stable. Currently 42% live in a household with a gun and 29% specifically have a gun of their own. These totals are up slightly from 2001 when 41% and 27% respectively reported the same.

What is more significant is the across the board decline by subgroup in the number of those wanting more strict gun laws. The largest comes from college graduates, political independents and nonwhites racially at 23%, the smallest from 50-64 year olds at 5%. Currently just 1/3rd of men against 55% of women want stricter gun laws according to Gallup. 67% of self described liberals and 66% of Democrats wants stricter laws against just 30% and 28% of conservatives and Republicans. Independents and moderates are also shrinking in their resistance coming in at 38% and 48% respectively. Interestingly there is little difference by age with all groups measuring from 44-48% in their preference for more strict laws on guns.

As they begin a new term today the Supreme Court will look at cases involving the second amendment of the constitution and whether it supersedes state and local anti-gun laws. Last June the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional amendment when it revoked the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns despite the city having one of the highest violent crime rates in the nation. President Obama’s gun record is highly debatable as well. He has been quoted as saying he respects the second amendment but also local bans on handguns as determined by individual states and cities.