Will Public Accept New Gun Restrictions ?

There has been a lot of talk recently about finally doing something about the easy accessibility of guns in this country, including assault weapons. Measures that have received a lot of attention have been the re-imposing of a ban of assault weapons and closing the loopholes in the background checks on gun sales in general. Will the public accept new gun restrictions?

The Gallup Poll has done a new survey of attitudes about gun laws. The poll was conducted between January 7th and 10th of a random national sample of 1,011 adults, and the results are shown in the graph above. Note that 38% of Americans would be in favor of new gun laws, while 43% are satisfied with the current laws (and 5% would like the laws less strict than they currently are).

Now this poll would seem to show that most Americans don't want any new gun laws. But look at what has happened recently. After several years of the poll remaining pretty static, there has now been substantial movement toward approval for new gun laws. Recently those satisfied with current laws have dropped from 50% to about 43% (a drop of 7 points), while those wanting new gun laws has jumped from 25% to about 38% (a rise of 13 points). Putting those figures together, that shows a movement of about 20 points -- and there is no reason to believe that movement can't continue in the coming days and weeks (especially if the NRA leadership continues its craziness).

Of course, this all depends on just what kind of new laws and/or restrictions we are talking about. I think the very general nature of the poll's question might have scared some respondents -- who would like to know exactly what we're talking about before they climb on board. Today we should find out more, since Vice-President Biden will release the proposals he has come up with. I expect they will be reasonable -- and not the "they're coming for our guns" scare that many on the right are afraid of.

It should be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks.