Despite how the presidential election is playing out, Gallup Poll reports a significant decline in support for gun control laws. In fact, apparently support of said laws is lower than it has been since 2016:
In the absence of a high-profile mass shooting in the U.S. in 2020 and amid the coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest related to racial justice issues and the contentious presidential election campaign, Americans are less likely than they have been since 2016 to call for increased gun control. The latest majority (57%) in the U.S. who call for stricter laws covering the sale of firearms marks a seven-percentage-point decline since last year. At the same time, 34% of U.S. adults prefer that gun laws be kept as they are now, while 9% would like them to be less strict.
Gallup has been collecting data on American support of various gun laws for three decades. Results tend to spike in support of gun control legislation after mass shootings being highly publicized by the mainstream media but they vary by demographic groups noticeably, too:
There are sharp differences in views of gun control within a number of key demographic groups in the latest findings from Gallup’s annual Crime poll, conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 15. Majorities of women, Democrats, independents, those who do not own guns, residents of the Eastern and Western U.S., and city and suburban residents all support stricter gun laws. At the same time, these groups’ counterparts are more supportive of keeping gun laws as they are now or making them less strict.
This makes me want to shake some sense into women in the United States. Apparently, of the people polled, 67 percent of women who responded supported stricter gun control compared to 46 percent of men. Come on, ladies. Educate yourselves.
Handguns come up as a topic of possible bans on a regular basis, but the idea of regulating them remains unsupported:
Americans’ support for a ban on the possession of handguns, at 25%, is near the lowest on record in Gallup’s 40-year trend. The latest reading, which is down 18 points from its 1991 high, is a slight decline from last year’s 29%. Currently, 74% of U.S. adults say such a ban should not be put in place.
We’ve experienced record gun sales in 2020 and that trend has not only kept up but promises to spike even higher. Even so, gun control support is at its lowest point in four years. Maybe that’s because we suddenly have all these new gun owners realizing they’d like to keep their natural, civil, and constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms. Maybe it’s because people in general are getting tired of politicians and laws. Maybe it’s because of mostly peaceful rioting. Whatever the cause, let’s hope it keeps up. This is an encouraging trend to see in action.