Fifty-six percent of Americans say laws covering the sale of firearms should be made more strict, 27% say they should be kept as they are, and 15% want them made less strict. Support for stricter laws has edged down from last year’s 60% but matches the 2023 and 2024 readings. It remains well below the 78% high recorded in 1990, when Gallup first asked this question.
The 15% of Americans who favor less strict gun laws is a new high, one percentage point above the previous high in 2014 and three points higher than last year.
My spin on it is that, while their spin is technically correct, the number of people who really “get it” is at a clear all-time high: 15% now want less strict laws. Gun law reform is needed. The existing laws are unconstitutional as well as being of no use in reducing violent crime. Gun laws gotta go!
Assuming the poll is accurate, they have a majority in support of more gun control. But what the poll is not telling anyone is that when people are given the details of what the existing law is and what the proposed laws are, support evaporates. “Close the gun show loophole!”, they cry and they can get support — until the details are revealed.
Keep coming out of the closet, be a good “ambassador” for gun owners, and take new shooters to the range. We can keep the trend going, and the trend is our friend.
