On the first anniversary of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., NPR, “PBS NewsHour” and Marist released a poll exploring views of various approaches to gun ownership in the United States. Many of the findings are what we’ve come to expect: broad support for expanded background checks in the purchasing process; split views by party on the necessity for new restrictions on gun ownership. The extended advocacy of the surviving teenagers in Parkland notwithstanding, opinions on guns remain fairly fixed.
At the end of that poll, though, was an interesting question. The pollsters asked respondents a question about a matter of fact: Did they think that the rate of gun murders in the United States was higher or lower than it had been 25 years ago? CONT.
Philip Bump, Washington Post