U.S. Gun-Control Support Is Highest in One Poll's 5-Year History
U.S. Gun Control Support at Highest Level Measured, Poll Shows
(Bloomberg) -- In the wake of yet another school shooting, American voters say they want stricter gun laws, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. The findings mark the highest level of support for gun control ever measured by the poll, according to Quinnipiac.
The nationwide survey taken Feb. 16-19 began two days after a school shooting in Florida left 17 people dead. Students who survived within hours were calling for stricter gun laws including a ban on assault weapons, and are leading plans for protests at schools across the country to demand action.
"Support for stricter gun laws is up 19 points in little more than two years," Tim Malloy, assistant director of poll, said in a statement. Some 66 percent now say they support tougher rules versus 31 percent opposed. The pollster, based in Connecticut, says it began focusing on the issue in the wake of the 2012 shooting at nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Quinnipiac’s poll of 1,249 voters found 97 percent of respondents want universal background checks. Voters want by a two-to-one margin support a ban on sales of assault weapons, and by a five-to-one margin want a mandatory waiting period for all gun purchases. Even among firearm owners, 50 percent support stricter gun laws, while 44 percent oppose.
President Donald Trump today directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to draft regulations banning bump stocks, devices which rapidly increase gun firing rates and which have been used in mass shootings including last year in Las Vegas. Trump, who last week visited medical staff and patients being treated at a hospital following the attack, also supports efforts to improve the federal background check system, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday.
Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, serves on the advisory board of Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for stiffer legislation regarding firearms. The survey of 1,249 likely voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen Miller in Washington at kmiller01@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Derek Wallbank at dwallbank@bloomberg.net, Catherine Dodge
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