Soon after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced an assault weapons ban would not be part of a gun control bill, a new CBS News poll shows support for stricter gun control laws overall has dropped since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Currently, support for stricter gun […] Read more »
Gun Counts Can Be Hit-or-Miss
Lawmakers in statehouses and the U.S. Capitol who are debating proposed new firearm laws are lacking some key data: How many people in the U.S. own guns, and how many households contain guns? Some surveys suggest only 50 million Americans own guns. Others, depending on how they are interpreted, point […] Read more »
Fox News poll: Majorities support new gun measures
Majorities of American voters favor an array of new gun control proposals, although support for some measures has slipped in the last few months. A new Fox News poll finds the most popular measure continues to be universal background checks: A large 85-percent majority of voters favors requiring checks on […] Read more »
Newtown didn’t change the politics of guns
… The simple fact is that despite all of the assertions that Newtown had or would change the political dialogue around guns in this country, it wound up reinforcing much of what we already knew about the difficulties of limiting gun rights. Yes, measures to curb gun control are popular […] Read more »
How Democrats Misread Polling on Gun Control
Proponents of gun-control legislation, emboldened by the president’s call for stricter laws and overwhelming support in public polling, have been optimistic that proposals for background checks or a crackdown on weapons trafficking could pass Congress. Gun-control advocates have cited plenty of data to make their case, including surveys that show […] Read more »
Why Own a Gun? Protection Is Now Top Reason
… A national survey finds that nearly half of gun owners (48%) volunteer that the main reason they own a gun is for protection; just 32% say they have a gun primarily for hunting and even fewer cite other reasons, such as target shooting. In 1999, 49% said they owned […] Read more »