Support For Background Checks Still Strong

Public Policy Polling did a new survey in four states that had senators who voted against the Senate bill requiring background checks for all gun buyers, to see if that vote had affected those senators in their home states. The poll surveyed 1,166 Alaska voters (moe 2.9), 600 Arizona voters (moe 4.0), 500 Nevada voters (moe 4.4), and 600 Ohio voters (moe 4.0). The survey was done on April 25th and 26th.

The poll showed that all five of the senators in the survey (Flake, Murkowski, Begich, Portman, and Heller) had a drop in their approval ratings. This should not be a surprise since, as the bottom chart above shows (from the same PPP poll), a clear majority of voters in all five states support the idea of making all gun buyers go through a background check.

Because of their vote against background checks, 52% of Arizona voters say they would be less likely to support Flake in the future, 39% of Alaska voters would be less likely to support Murkowski and Begich in the future, 36% of Ohio voters say they would be less likely to vote for Portman in the future, and 46% of Nevada voters are less likely to support Heller in the future.

The Gallup Poll surveyed voters on the same issue on a national basis. Their poll was done between April 22nd and 25th of more than a thousand randomly selected voters (with a 4 point moe). They found the following:

SHOULD THE SENATE HAVE PASSED THE BILL TO EXPAND BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR GUN PURCHASES?
yes...............65%
no...............29%
unsure...............6%

Clearly, the American people are disappointed by the bill's failure to pass the Senate. But it looks like the disinformation campaign by the NRA and some Republican right-wingers was partially successful. Many people evidently thought the bill included some extraneous features like a national gun registry (it did not), because when these same respondents are asked if they would vote for background checks the numbers are much higher.

WOULD YOU VOTE FOR OR AGAINST A LAW REQUIRING EXPANDED BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR GUN PURCHASES?
yes...............83%
no...............17%
unsure...............1%

And the support for background checks cuts across political lines. Here are the percentages of those who would vote to expand background checks by party:
Republicans...............73%
Independents...............80%
Democrats...............96%

There is still strong support among the American public for expanded background checks. That means this could well be an issue in the 2014 elections.