Americans are less supportive of some gun control measures than they were a year ago, according to a new Gallup poll released Monday.
Support for a handgun ban is at 20%, near the all-time low, and support for an “assault weapons” ban is down nine points from 2019, according to the poll conducted Oct. 1 through Oct. 12. However, a slim majority still support stricter laws overall, with 56% supporting additional laws and 33% supporting no change.
Democrats swung 16 points against handgun bans from 2023 to this year, going from 49% in favor to only 33%, the poll found. Independent voters also decreased their support for the policy, dipping five points from 2022.
Gun policy was an important issue during the 2024 election, with 53% President-elect Donald Trump supporters and 59% of Vice President Kamala Harris supporters saying the issue was “very important” for their vote, according to a September Pew Research poll. Harris promised in 2019 when she ran in her party’s presidential primary race to ban assault weapons if she were elected to office.
However, she later insisted throughout her brief 2024 presidential campaign that she was “not taking anyone’s guns away” if elected, despite her record on the issue.
Currently, nine states have an assault weapons ban, according to gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
Trump has been a staunch defender of the Second Amendment, receiving an endorsement from the National Rifle Association (NRA) in May.
However, Trump did sign gun restrictions while in office, most notably his approval of a ban on bump stocks in the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. The law was subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2024 on Second Amendment grounds.
More recently, Trump promised to sign a nationwide concealed carry reciprocity law, which would allow concealed carry permit holders to carry in all 50 states, according to ABC news. 29 states already honor all permits, and nine states do not honor the out-of-state permits.
The popularity of stricter gun laws overall has remained steady since 2022, however support from independents dipped from 66% to 56% from June 2022 to present, according to the poll. Republicans support lessening gun restrictions the most of any demographic, with 15% agreeing with the proposal.
Support for gun control measures spiked among all parties in June 2022 in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, which left 19 students and two teachers dead, the poll found. By October 2022, the spike had largely faded.
The poll sampled 1,023 people by landline and cellphone, having a 4% margin for error, according to Gallup.
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