Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020
Have polls shown high levels of support for some gun-control measures?
Multiple pollsters in recent years have reported strong, often bipartisan public support for some measures to regulate gun sales in the U.S. For instance, Gallup surveys have found:
96% support for background checks (October 2017).75% support for a 30-day waiting period for gun sales (October 2017).64% support for generally stricter laws (October 2019).
Opinion is more divided about regulating or banning high-capacity magazines and assault weapons. Women and college-educated men tend to be more supportive of new restrictions. Pew Research in October 2019 found that there had been a "modest" rise in overall support since 2017, among both Democrats and Republicans, although Republicans are four times as likely as Democrats to say gun rights are more important than gun control.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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