If you have been monitoring so-called “mainstream” media sources or seen Gallup’s recent headline announcing their latest poll findings on firearms, you would be led to believe that an overwhelming majority of Americans want to ban semi-automatic modern sporting rifles, also known as assault weapons.
Gallup’s report on the poll carried the headline, “Majorities Still Back Stricter Gun Laws, Assault Weapons Ban.” And technically, that’s true. However, channeling our inner Paul Harvey, now you’re going to hear the rest of the story.
In fact, a better headline would have been, “Support for Assault Weapons Ban Continues To Fall.” Here’s a breakdown of the findings of this most recent survey.
While a majority, only 52% of respondents said they favored a law banning so-called “assault weapons,” while 48% responded that they didn’t favor such a ban. But what’s interesting is that support for such a ban continues to fall from year to year.
In 2019, when Gallup first asked the question, support for such a ban was 61%, with only 39% opposing, and by 2022, support had dropped to 55%. If that trend continues, by the time the question is asked again it’s likely the majority will not favor a ban.
The assertion that “majorities still back stricter gun laws” is also somewhat misleading when you look at the trend over the past several years. In this year’s poll, 56% of Americans said they prefer stricter gun laws, while those saying they should be kept the same made up 33%. 10% of respondents said gun laws should be less strict.
The important finding, however, is that support for stricter laws has fallen precipitously over the past few decades, which probably would have made a more accurate headline. In fact, in 1990, the first time Gallup asked the question, 78% of respondents said they favored stricter gun laws—a full 22% more than answered that way this year. And the 56% favoring strict gun laws this year is down from 66% in June 2022 and 57% in October 2022. Last year’s polling revealed the same number—56%.
One thing the story did get right was mentioned in the subhead: “Support for a ban on handguns in the U.S. dropped to a near-record low.” In 1990, 60% of Americans said they favored a ban on handgun ownership. In the August survey, only 20% favored such a ban, second lowest only to 2021 when that number was 19%. Interestingly, according to the report, it is the changing opinion of Democrats that have driven that great decline in support.
“The decline in support for a handgun ban this year is largely owed to Democrats, whose backing has fallen by 16 points since 2023 to 33%—a new low—after the group showed increasing support for a ban the prior two years,” the report stated.
Only 6% of Republicans favored a handgun ban in this year’s survey, with 94% in opposition. The data for the report were derived from Gallup’s crime poll, conducted October 1-12.
