Guns

Guidance for Lawmakers

There is little evidence that gun control is, at the moment, a high priority for Americans. It does not appear in Americans' specifications of the most important problem facing the country, nor as a priority for Congress and the president to deal with at this time.

• Just about 4 in 10 Americans are dissatisfied with gun laws in the country, while half are satisfied.
• The pressure to make gun laws stricter appears to be mitigated. Just slightly more than half of Americans support making laws covering firearms sales more strict, at its lowest point since 2002.
• More than two in three Americans oppose the government completely outlawing the right to possess a handgun.
• Nearly 6 in 10 of Americans now say the government should enforce current gun laws more strictly rather than passing new laws. This percentage is up this year, similar to levels previously measured in 2002.
• The public has grown slightly more likely to say that having a gun in the home makes it a safer, rather than a less safe, place to be. The opposite was true previously from 2000 to 2004.

Nonetheless, Americans strongly agree that the government should require background checks for people purchasing guns. Fifty percent of Americans support and 46% oppose making it illegal to manufacture, sell, or possess semi-automatic guns known as assault rifles.

Despite highly publicized shootings in courtrooms, half of Americans say courtrooms would be more dangerous if judges were armed with guns, and an even higher percentage say schools would be more dangerous if school officials were armed.

Americans do, however, say that air travel would be safer if pilots were armed.

Fine Print

Attitudes toward gun control are complex, and support for new laws depends on the precise way in which the legislation would control guns. Compared with other policy issues, there has been relatively little measurement of public opinion in this area in recent years.

Context

Gun control issues typically arise in the context of real-world events, most recently involving incidents of school shootings or following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While Americans' concerns about crime more generally have been lower than at times in the past decade or so, over the past two years, Gallup has found more Americans expressing concern about crime. If this trend continues, this may create an environment in which views on gun control change.

About 4 in 10 Americans report having a gun in their home. Nearly 7 in 10 Americans report firing a gun at some point in their lifetimes. Gun owners are more against new gun control legislation than those who do not own guns.

Urgency: Overall Importance as Political Issue

The issue of guns and gun control does not appear to be highly salient in the minds of Americans at this time. There has been little recent polling that has asked Americans to rate the importance of gun control against other issues facing the country. Few, if any, Americans spontaneously mention guns or gun control as the most important problem facing the country, or as the top priority for the president and Congress to deal with right now. Mentions of guns or gun control as the nation's top problem was highest after the Columbine school shooting in 1999, but even then, only 10% mentioned it. The increasing concern about crime may have an effect on the issue's salience.

Impact on Politics

At the present time, the issues of guns and gun control seem to have little effect on political attitudes in the country. It is currently not a salient issue in the minds of Americans, and there has been little recent discussion about guns or gun control in the media. The issue does not appear to be one that will affect the 2008 presidential election, at least at this point in the race. So far in the campaign, leading candidates in both parties have yet to bring this up as a top issue for the next president's agenda.

Key Subgroup Differences

There is a major partisan difference in views on guns and gun control.

• Two in three Republicans say they are satisfied with the nation's laws or policies on guns. This percentage is much lower among Democrats, at 37%.
• The strong majority of Democrats feel that gun laws in the United States should be stricter, while only about 4 in 10 Republicans feel this way. Forty-eight percent of Republicans feel gun laws should remain as they are at the present time.
• Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support banning the possession of handguns, though a majority of both groups tend to oppose this.
• More than half of Republicans report having a gun in their homes, while only about a third of Democrats report this. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to report ever firing a gun.

There are also considerable differences between men and women on this issue. Men are more satisfied with the nation's gun laws, more likely to report owning a gun, but are less likely to say that gun laws should be stricter and also to favor banning guns.

The Bottom Line

Gallup Polls in 2007 show Americans' views toward guns and gun control easing. Americans are generally satisfied with the current state of gun laws in the United States, and fewer Americans are saying they would like gun laws in the country to be stricter. As a result, it is fair to say that gun control laws are not an important issue to the American public at the present time; Americans are much more concerned with the war in Iraq, healthcare issues, and terrorism. Gun control, at the present time, does not appear to be an issue that is having much effect on Americans' ratings of the president or Congress, nor one that -- at least at this point -- will be a major factor in the 2008 presidential campaign season.