Polls: Most Americans Prioritize Safety Over Gun Rights & Support Background Checks on Purchases
© AFP 2023 / CHIP SOMODEVILLA
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Recent polls show a wide margin of support among Americans for gun control legislation in the wake of several prominent mass shootings. However, significant legislation will be difficult to pass, given the staunchly pro-gun ownership positions taken by many lawmakers whose campaigns have been funded by the National Rifle Association (NRA).
A new poll published on Thursday by NPR-PBS News Hour-Marist found that 59% of respondents prioritize controlling gun violence over Americans’ right to own a firearm. That number varies sharply by political party, with 92% of Democrats holding this position but only 20% of Republicans; 66% of independents also agreed.
In addition, 72% of respondents said the recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, last month made it more likely they would vote in the November 2022 midterm elections, when voters will choose many of their lawmakers and governors. The poll was conducted from May 31 to June 6.
For gun ownership advocates, the right to own a firearm is enshrined in the US Constitution, the Second Amendment of which stipulates that “a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” However, gun control advocates point to the phrase “well-regulated” as evidence they can restrict access to guns.
In a separate poll published in late May by Morning Consult and Politico, 73% of respondents said they “strongly support” universal background checks for would-be buyers of guns and another 15% said they “somewhat support” that requirement. Just 4% said they somewhat oppose” and another 4% said they “strongly oppose” a background check, with 5% saying they had no opinion. The survey was conducted just on May 25, the day after the Uvalde shooting, in which 19 children and two adults were massacred in a Texas elementary school by a gunman who bought his rifle just days earlier.
Federal lawmakers in the Democratic-majority US House of Representatives advanced several federal gun control bills this week, including a “red flag” bill and one to raise the minimum age for buying certain types of firearms, such as the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used in many recent shootings. However, neither bill is likely to get far in the US Senate, where Republicans can use their 50-person bloc to obstruct legislation of which they disapprove.
Last year, the House also passed a Bipartisan Background Checks Act, but it, too, has stalled in the Senate.
The US sees hundreds of mass shootings each year, defined as an event in which four or more people are wounded by gunfire, and the push for gun control in response to them is not anything new. In 2020, gun violence surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death among American youth.
The NRA, a nationwide gun ownership advocacy NGO, spends significant resources to influence US politicians toward pro-gun policies. According to data collected by The Trace, in the 2020 US elections, the NRA spent $16.3 million fighting Joe Biden or supporting Donald Trump, and $12.2 million across 145 different congressional races. However, even that is just a fraction of what it shelled out in 2016 when the gun lobby group put $30.3 million into getting Trump elected and a total of $54.4 million into the elections.
