NEW YORK — Support for tougher gun control laws is soaring in the United States, according to a new poll that found a majority of gun owners and half of Republicans favor new laws to address gun violence in the weeks after a Florida school shooting left 17 dead and sparked nationwide protests.
The poll, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that nearly 7 in 10 adults now favor stricter gun control measures. That's the strongest level of support since The Associated Press first asked the question five years ago. The new poll also found that nearly half of Americans do not expect elected officials to take action.
Sixty percent believe that making it harder to legally obtain a gun would result in fewer mass shootings; just 49 percent said the same in the 2016 poll.
Inaccurate according to who?The new poll finds support for specific gun control measures even among those who bristle at the term "gun control."
"That's what Hitler did," said Flora McIntyre, of Simi Valley, California, repeating a common, but inaccurate, line of criticism against gun control measures. "Hitler made everyone register their guns. Then he came and collected all the guns."
Not sure what he means by "dirty guns"? Guns that haven't been cleaned after being shot? Inexpensive guns? Black guns? Go door to door?Nearly 6 in 10 favor a nationwide ban on AR-15-style rifles.
"They should take them off the market. Too much power right there," 25-year-old Sedrick Clark, of St. Louis Missouri, said of AR-15s.
Clark, a self-described Republican, said he recently purchased a handgun for protection. But he said he'd support police efforts to go door-to-door to confiscate "dirty guns" from convicted felons and others who shouldn't have them.
"I know Trump would do it," Clark said, praising the Republican president.
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How the AP NORC poll was conducted
No kidding. I've seen or heard of people being asked questions like "Do you support measures to reduce gun violence?" Or, "Do you support legislation to make schools safer?" or "Do you support changes to America's gun laws?" I and plenty of other people support plenty of changes to gun laws or making schools safer, just not the kind of changes Giffords or Bloomberg or Feinstein proposes.There are other sources of potential error in polls, including the wording and order of questions.