New poll on gun policy, legislation

by David Safier

According to a new poll conducted jointly by a polling firm with Democratic clients (Momentum Analysis) and another with Republican clients (American Viewpoint), people want to keep guns, including handguns, legal, but they want to keep them out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill, and they want background checks whenever guns are sold, including gun shows.

You can look through the entire poll here.

The poll was conducted after the recent shooting. Half of the people polled are gun owners, and on most questions, their answers are close to those of the rest of the people polled.

Here are some highlights.

• 90 percent of Americans and 90 percent of gun owners support fixing gaps in government databases that are meant to prevent the mentally ill, drug abusers and others from buying guns.
• 91 percent of Americans and 93 percent of gun owners support requiring federal agencies to share information about suspected dangerous persons or terrorists to prevent them from buying guns.
• 89 percent of Americans and 89 percent of gun owners support full funding of the law a unanimous Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed after the Virginia Tech shootings to put more records in the background-check database.
• 86 percent of Americans and 81 percent of gun owners support requiring all gun buyers to pass a background check, no matter where they buy the gun and no matter who they buy it from.
• 89 percent of Americans and 85 percent of gun owners support a law to require background checks for all guns sold at gun shows.

The takeaway from this poll, as well as another conducted at the end of 2009 which I'll be posting about soon, is that the public is more than ready for some modest but important changes in gun laws and reporting practices. Based on the results of the 2009 poll, the NRA's absolutism is not even reflected in the views of its membership. A group of lawmakers, especially a bipartisan coalition, can argue, at the very least, that background checks need to be performed at gun shows, and the reporting of criminal violations and mental health problems must be done with greater diligence.