Poll: Americans overwhelmingly prioritize gun control over ownership rights
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A memorial dedicated to the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Seventy percent of Americans think enacting new gun control laws should take precedence over protecting ownership rights, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll out Sunday.
Why it matters: The findings indicate widespread support for stricter gun control laws in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The big picture: On the flip side, 29% of respondents believe protecting the right to own a wide variety of guns should be a higher priority than enacting new gun control laws, the poll suggests.
- The gap between the two positions has widened by 9 points since March 2021, when the same poll found that 66% of people favored new gun control laws, while 34% preferred protecting gun ownership rights.
The results were split along partisan lines, with 90% of Democrats and 75% of independents surveyed prioritizing new gun laws. Fifty-six percent of Republicans in the poll said protecting gun ownership rights takes priority.
- Thirty-five percent of respondents approved of President Biden's handling of gun violence, an increase from when the question was asked in January and December.
State of play: Both parents and children are concerned about gun violence in schools, according to a new CBS News poll released Sunday.
- Among parents of school-aged kids, 72% described themselves as very or somewhat concerned about the possibility gun violence at their children's schools.
- A large majority of parents of school-aged children described themselves as sad, scared, nervous and angry in the wake of the Uvalde mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
- Nearly one-third of parents said their children worry "a lot" about gun violence at school, and more than half of the parents surveyed said their children felt scared and sad in the wake of the Uvalde shooting.
Worth noting: Seventy-two percent of respondents in the ABC News/Ipsos poll said they viewed gun violence as extremely or very important in determining their votes in the upcoming midterms.
- Seventy-four percent of those surveyed saw gas prices as extremely or very important, while taxes (67%) and abortion (63%) were also standout issues.
Methodology: This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted June 3-4 by Ipsos using the probability-based KnowledgePanel®. The poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 542 adults age 18 or older. The margin of sampling error is ±4.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults.
This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted June 1-3 with a nationally representative sample of 2,021 U.S. adults. The margin of sampling error is ±2.6 points at a 95% confidence level.
