Support For New 'Gun Control'
Laws Lowest Since 2016
By Cam Edwards, November 16, 2020
Americans' appetite for gun control is waning, according to a new survey by the Gallup organization, which found support for new gun laws at the lowest level since 2016.
According to the polling group, support for 'gun control' is down seven points compared to 2019, and ten points compared to polling from 2018.
In the absence of a high-profile mass shooting in the U.S. in 2020 and amid the coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest related to racial justice issues and the contentious presidential election campaign, Americans are less likely than they have been since 2016 to call for increased 'gun control'. The latest majority (57%) in the U.S. who call for stricter laws covering the sale of firearms marks a seven-percentage-point decline since last year. At the same time, 34% of U.S. adults prefer that gun laws be kept as they are now, while 9% would like them to be less strict.
Gallup has been tracking the public's views on this measure since 1990, when a record-high 78% of Americans supported stricter laws for gun sales as the nation's crime rate was rising. A majority of Americans held that position until 2008. Support then fell to a low of 43% in 2011, when an equal number said gun laws should be kept as is, but calls for stricter laws increased sharply to 58% in 2012 after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
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During the election run-up, it became fairly evident that poll results were either skewed or at least, far from accurate. This may well also be the case with polling on 'gun control', although there is every reason to believe (or hope) that in fact there has been some reduction in enthusiasm for more controls - possibly evidenced by the record gun sales over many recent months.
