Stricter Laws—Harris Poll Respondents
Harris Poll gauged the public's attitude on gun control laws on September 24, 2004. One question was, "In general, would you say you favor stricter gun control, or less strict gun control?" and the other asked specifically about assault weapons. In the first question about gun control in general, 60% of respondents favored stricter gun control laws, with 32% opposing them. The percentage of support has declined since 2000, when 63% favored stricter gun control.
RESTRICTIONS ON ASSAULT WEAPONS. When asked about support for the assault weapons ban, which expired in September 2004, a large majority of respondents (71%) supported the renewal of the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition. Only 26% opposed the ban.
Stricter Laws—Gallup Poll Respondents
A Gallup poll conducted in October 2003 reported that a slight majority of Americans were in favor of stricter gun control laws (55%). There were 9% of respondents who would make the laws less strict, and 36% believed that the laws are satisfactory as they are now.
POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES AND THE GUN CONTROL ISSUE. The Gallup poll also examined the political ideologies of those who responded to the gun control question. A majority of those who described themselves as liberals (53%) supported stronger gun control laws, compared with 32% of moderates and 23% of conservatives who shared the same view on gun control.
Stricter Laws—Trends—National Opinion Research Center
Figure 8.1 is a list of the questions that were asked in the National Gun Policy Surveys conducted in the 1990s. The surveys were designed by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago in collaboration with the Center for Gun Policy and Research of Johns Hopkins University. The questions alone provide a wealth of information about issues and proposed solutions related to gun control. Table 8.1 shows the responses to the questions over a short period of time (from 1996 to 2001), and Table 8.2 shows responses according to whether the respondent owned a gun or had a gun in the household.
Table 8.1 reveals that in the 1990s the public consistently showed strong support for measures to regulate firearms, promote firearm safety, and keep criminals from acquiring guns. In their analysis of the data, the authors found only two "meaningful" trends:
Support for both a mandatory background check and five-day waiting period before a handgun could be purchased dropped from 85% in 1998 to 73% in 2001 (minus twelve percentage points) and support for a total ban on handguns fell from 16% in 1996 to 11% in 2001 (minus five percentage points).
Looking at the long-term trend, the authors noted that attitudes toward the regulation of firearms were remarkably stable over the last forty years of the twentieth century, despite assassinations, rising rates of violent crime, and school shootings. They attribute this stability to the public's familiarity with the gun control debate and the fact that attitudes toward guns are fixed by a person's exposure to them in the home and community, not by periodic tragedies.
The Annenberg Public Policy Center—Assault Weapons Ban Poll
A poll by the Annenberg Public Policy Center released on September 6, 2004, showed that 68% of the American public were in favor of extending the assault weapons ban, with the highest levels of support among women (71%), people with college degrees (75%), Hispanics (75%), and liberals (75%). Support was strong with gun owners (57%), conservatives (62%), and residents of rural areas (61%).
ATTITUDES OF GUN OWNERS. Table 8.2 shows NORC survey data according to whether the survey respondents owned a gun or had a gun in the household. Gun ownership shapes a person's attitudes toward gun control measures, gun safety, and other issues. According to the authors' analysis of the data, gun owners are less inclined to favor gun regulation and are less likely to be concerned about gun safety. In twelve of the twenty-seven survey items, the gap between gun owners and non-gun owners is twenty percentage points or more. People who live in gun households but do not personally own guns generally fall between the other two groups (gun owners and those with no guns in the household). Many of those in gun households who do not personally own guns are women.
Further Opinions on the Assault Weapons Ban
A February 2004 survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation International for the Consumer Federation of America found that 76% of non-gun owners supported renewing the ban on assault weapons, while 67% of all respondents and 56% of gun owners agreed. (See Figure 8.2.) Support for other new gun control measures, such as background checks for older weapons, further age restrictions, and banning assault weapon kits, received even stronger support.
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