The Washington Post:
Most Americans support tough new measures to counter gun violence, including banning assault weapons and posting armed guards at every school, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
More than half of Americans — 52 percent in the poll — say the shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., has made them more supportive of gun control; just 5 percent say they are now less apt to back tighter restrictions. Most also are at least somewhat worried about a mass shooting in their own community, with concern jumping to 65 percent among those with school-age children at home.
The findings, which also show broad bipartisan support for mandatory background checks to purchase firearms at gun shows, came as President Obama said Monday that he will lay out specific White House proposals on gun-control legislation and executive actions this week.
The poll, conducted by Capital Insight, was in the field January 10-13, 2013. n=1001, MoE ± 3.5%, targeting landlines and cellphones. Poll respondents divide into 56% non gun-owners, while 44% own at least one firearm.
Crosstabs here, trendlines here.
At the topline, 52% of respondents are more inclined to support gun control post-Newtown, 5% less so, while 42% say the shootings made no difference to their views.
Public support is weakest for an outright ban of semi-automatic handguns, at 51%, 44% opposed. However, 65% of respondents support "a nationwide ban on high-capacity ammunition clips, meaning those containing more than 10 bullets", 32% opposed, 58% support a law requiring a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons, with 39% opposed, and asked "Would you support or oppose a law requiring background checks on people buying guns at gun shows?", respondents are 88% in favor, with only 11% opposed.
Asked about the proximate causes of gun violence (aided response), overwhelming majorities –– from 69% to 83% –– point to the easy availability of guns and lax enforcement of existing laws, such as mandatory background checks.
Going deeper from the how into the why, 72% posit a correlation between a violent mass media culture (TV, movies and video games specifically) as a root cause of societal violence, while 85% believe that shoddy mental health care is a contributory factor.
There are clear demographic and sociographic divides in response. For example, while 68% of Democrats are worried about a Newtown-style massacre taking place in their community, only 52% of Republicans and 49% of independents voice similar concerns, with 51% expressing little or no concern.
A Pew Research Center poll in the field in roughly the same time window, January 9-13, 2013, n=1,502, MoE ± 2.9%, broadly correlates with the results found by WaPo/ABC, with a slightly higher level of statistical significance.
The political conclusions are pretty straightforward: the Obama administration has a public mandate to take at least some measures to address the epidemic of gun violence. Pew finds:
However, two proposals draw overwhelming support from Republicans, Democrats and independents — making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks, and laws to prevent people with mental illness from purchasing guns.
Majorities in each political group also favor putting armed security guards or police in more schools, though this proposal garners more support from Republicans (73% favor) than from Democrats (62%) or independents (59%).
For advocates of gun control, however, this snippet from Pew may be most salient:
There is a wide gap between those who prioritize gun rights and gun control when it comes to political involvement. Nearly a quarter (23%) of those who say gun rights should be the priority have contributed money to an organization that takes a position on gun policy, compared with just 5% of those who prioritize gun control. People who favor gun rights are also about twice as likely as gun control supporters to have contacted a public official about gun policy (15% vs. 8%).
The conclusion is clear: if you want some form of gun control, as a majority of Americans does, you can't let your voice be drowned out by the vociferous few.
One month after Newtown, finally, it is enough.