By: Teresa Mull
Support for increased gun control among Americans has waned since March 2018, when school shootings resulted in a national call for restricting firearms.
According to The Washington Free Beacon:
“[A] Gallup poll of 1,019 adults, conducted between Oct. 1 and 10, found 61 percent of respondents support making gun laws stricter. That’s down 6 points from when Gallup asked the same question between March 1 and 8. At the same time, support for the idea that gun laws should be kept the same increased from 28 percent to 30 percent, and support for the idea they should be made less strict doubled, from 4 percent to 8 percent.”
Years in the Making
Though national attitudes on gun control have varied over the years, the popularity of new measures is much lower now than it was 28 years ago.
Breitbart.com reports:
“A Gallup poll released this week shows gun control support has fallen 17 percent since 1990.
“The poll shows that stricter gun control is currently supported by 61 percent of Americans. In 1990 stricter gun control was supported by 78 percent of Americans.”
Americans Like Their ARs
The Gallup poll also included a question about AR-15s and similar weapons.
“Americans oppose a ban on AR-15s and similar semiautomatic firearms by a robust margin of 17%,” nraila.org reports. “Meanwhile, current support for such a ban is 7% lower than the historical trend dating back to 1996, when Gallup first began polling on the issue. Americans, in other words, appear not to have been swayed by the intense media editorializing, celebrity pontificating, and youthful activism of the past year aimed at prohibiting what are by all accounts the most popular types of rifles in the country.”
Let’s hope the Americans who hold these pro-gun views make their voices heard at the ballot box this November!
Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].