"Strong public support, even among gun owners, for innovative
strategies to regulate firearms suggests that these proposals warrant serious
consideration by policy makers.”1 -- New England Journal of Medicine
National scientific
public opinion surveys from numerous independent sources show consistent
results: there is strong public support for changing our country's gun policy.
Since 1996, the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC),
whose “General Social Survey” has been the standard in national opinion
polling for decades, has conducted the “National Gun Policy Survey”
annually. This survey gauges public attitudes about guns and gun violence,
examines gun ownership, and tests public support of both established and
emerging gun violence prevention policies. The 1999 NORC poll, with a sample of
1,182 adults from across the country and a confidence interval of +/-3%, found
strong public support for a wide range of gun violence prevention policies.2
The 1999 NORC poll report includes questions asked in earlier editions of
the “National Gun Policy Survey” (NGPS) and the “General Social Survey”
(GSS) in order to provide as comprehensive a data set as possible.
For the purposes of this analysis, these questions are identified by the
poll in which they were asked as well as the year in which the poll was
conducted (e.g. “NGPS 1998”). All
other questions were asked as part of the 1999 NORC.
In October of 2000,
Lansing based market research and analysis firm EPIC-MRA found similar strong,
broad public support for gun violence prevention strategies when it conducted a
statewide poll of registered voters on a wide variety of gun issues. The poll,
which was commissioned by the Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, was
conducted with a randomly selected sample of 600 registered voters from across
the state, and has a sampling error of +/- 4%.
The results of the poll, where similar questions are asked, are quite
consistent with those of the NORC in that they find strong support among
Michigan voters (including gun owners) for virtually all measures short of an
outright ban on handguns.3
Common sense policies to regulate sales and ownership were highly favored by respondents in both polls.
EPIC-MRA
NORC
% MI voters
% U.S. adults
| 79 | 81 | favor a mandatory background check and five-day waiting period for handgun purchases. |
| 56 | favor a ban on private sales except through licensed dealers. | |
| 80 | favor requiring potential handgun purchasers to pay a $25 fee and submit to a two-week waiting period. | |
| 70 | 80 | favor mandatory registration of handguns. |
| 82 | favor requiring a gun purchaser to obtain a police permit (GSS 1998). | |
| 77 | favor regulating private sales by requiring private sellers to verify that a purchaser has a valid permit and reporting the sale to authorities. | |
| 79 | favor requiring background checks for sales between private individuals. | |
| 64 | 67 | favor a prohibition on the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines. |
| 66 | support requiring that all handgun owners should at least be licensed and trained in the use of their weapons. | |
| 84 | support requiring gun buyers to take a gun safety course prior to purchasing a gun. | |
| 69 | favor a prohibition on the importation of firearms banned in their country of origin. (NGPS 1998) | |
| 55 | favor prohibiting importation of civilian firearms altogether. (NGPS 1998) | |
| 54 | 61 | favor the mandatory registration of rifles and shotguns. |
| 76 | favor rising the minimum legal age for handgun purchase from 18 to 21. |
Nationally large majorities of adults and in Michigan most voters favor prohibiting persons convicted of the following crimes from purchasing and possessing guns:
| 82 | 90 | domestic violence |
| 61 | 84 | drunk and disorderly conduct (NGPS 1997, NGPS 1998) |
|
76 |
83 | carrying concealed without a permit |
| 63 | 82 | simple assault and battery |
| 49 | 67 | driving under the influence of alcohol |
Regulating guns as consumer products found strong support among respondents in both the NORC and EPIC-MRA polls.
EPIC-MRA
NORC
% MI voters
% U.S. adults
| 83 | 94 | favor imposing the same safety standards that imported handguns must meet on domestically manufactured handguns. |
| 86 | favor safety standards for domestic handguns even if they would cause handguns to be more expensive. | |
| 66 | favor the establishment of federal safety regulations for handgun design. | |
| 80 | 86 | favor legislation requiring that all new handguns be childproof. |
| 87 | 90 | favor requiring that handgun serial numbers be tamper resistant. (NGPS 1997, NGPS 1998) |
| 71 | 82 | favor legislation that would require all pistols to be equipped with magazine safety/disconnect technology. (NGPS 1997, NGPS 1998) |
| 64 | 73 | favor laws requiring that all new handguns be equpped with a load indicator. (NGPS 1997, NGPS 1998) |
| 50 | 63 | favor requiring that all-new handguns are personalized. |
| 79 | favor holding manufacturers liable for injuries resulting from defective design or manufacture. (NGPS 1997, NGPS 1998) | |
| 59 | 73 | favor making handgun ammunition sales subject to the same regulations as handgun sales. |
Holding gun owners accountable for the safe and responsible use of firearms was also highly favored in both the NORC poll of adults and the EPIC-MRA poll of Michigan voters:
EPIC-MRA
NORC
% MI voters
% U.S. adults
| 78 | 76 | favor child access prevention laws, which hold gun owners liable if improperly stored guns are misused by children. |
| 72 | 74 | favor requiring that guns be stored unloaded. |
| 71 | 73 | favor requiring that guns be stored with trigger locks. |
| 70 | 74 | favor requiring that guns be stored in locked boxes or cabinets. |
| 84 | 78 | favor punishing gun criminals by significantly increasing the duration of their prison sentences. |
| 81 | 82 | favor treating illegal gun possession "as a serious crime like robbery or burglary." |
| 66 | gun owners favoring requiring gun purchasers to obtain a police permit prior to purchase. | |
| 62 | 74 | gun owners favoring a mandatory background check and five-day waiting period for handgun purchases. |
| 67 | gun owners favoring regulating private sales by requiring sellers to verify that a purchaser has a valid permit and reporting the sale to authorities. | |
| 67 | gun owners favoring raising the minimum legal age for handgun purchase from 18 to 21. | |
| 60 | 65 | gun owners favoring the mandatory registration of handguns. |
| 66 | gun owners favoring mandatory background checks on private gun sales. | |
| 80 | gun owners favor requiring potential handgun purchasers to pay a $25 fee and submit to a two-week waiting period. | |
| 52 | 56 | gun owners favoring a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines or clips. |
| 81 | 90 | gun owners favoring holding domestically manufactured handguns to the same safety standards that imported handguns are held to. |
| 86 | owners favoring the imposition of such standards even if handguns became more expensive as a result. | |
| 77 | gun owners favoring requiring gun purchasers to complete gun-safety training courses. | |
| 68 | 75 | gun owners favoring requiring all new handguns to be childproof. |
| 84 | gun owners favoring requiring guns to be manufactured with tamper proof serial numbers. | |
| 61 | gun owners favoring a law requiring that all new pistols to be equipped with a magazine disconnect. | |
| 52 | gun owners favoring a law requiring that all new handguns be equipped with load indicators. | |
| 73 | 70 | favor child access prevention laws, which hold gun owners liable if improperly stored guns are misused by children |
| 53 | 57 | gun owners favoring requiring guns to be stored in a locked box or cabinet. |
| 64 | 62 | gun owners favoring requiring that guns be stored unloaded. |
| 54 | 50 | gun owners favoring requiring that guns be stored with a trigger lock. |
| 52 | gun owners favoring federal safety regulations for gun desigin. | |
| 84 | 80 | gun owners favoring punishing gun criminals by significantly increasing the duration of their prison sentences. |
| 80 | 75 | gun owners favoring treating illegal gun possession "as a serious crime like robbery or burglary." |
Gun owners nationwide and in Michigan favor prohibiting persons convicted of the following crimes from purchasing and possessing firearms:
| 72 | 81 | domestic violence |
| 54 | drunk and disorderly conduct | |
| 75 | 70 | carrying concealed without a permit |
| 60 | 68 | simple assault and battery |
| 49 | 51 | driving under the influence of alcohol |
Clearly, gun owners are among the majority of Americans who favor common sense gun violence prevention initiatives. The 1999 NORC poll demonstrates that a majority of gun owners supported every policy initiative tested with the following exceptions: mandatory licensing and safety training for handgun owners, mandatory registration of rifles and shotguns, need based concealed weapons licensing, handgun bans, and holding the gun industry liable for the misuse of their products. Still, even for these policies, with the exception of gun industry liability and handgun bans, gun owner support ranged from 36% to 49%. MPPGV’s 2000 poll shows that a majority of Michigan gun owners support all the initiatives put forth other than a handgun ban, a ban on private sales, regulating ammunition like handguns, required personalization of handguns, and the mandatory registration of rifles and shotguns.
Additionally, MPPGV’s poll demonstrates significant support for common sense gun violence prevention initiatives among Michigan NRA members. While support from NRA members in Michigan was not as strong as that of gun owners in general, they did support many important policies, including licensing and registration (45%), five day waiting periods (56%), banning high capacity ammunition magazines (55%), mandatory reporting of private handgun sales (64%), creating uniform safety standards for domestic and imported handguns (68%), child access prevention laws (59%), raising the legal age for handgun purchase to 21 (58%), childproofing guns (51%), and requiring guns to be stored unloaded (59%). Approximately 11% of gun owners identified themselves as NRA members.
Two of the most significant questions in the NORC
poll ask respondents to balance their own interests, and those of law-abiding
gun owners, with the goal of gun violence prevention. In response to the first
question, 71.4 % stated that they would be willing to pay $25 in taxes to reduce
gun injuries. In response to the
second question, a substantial majority of respondents- 69.8 % - agreed that the
government should do everything it can to keep guns out of the hands of
criminals even if gun acquisition by law-abiding citizens becomes more
difficult. These responses further
demonstrate that Americans clearly understand gun violence prevention in
the context of personal and societal responsibility, that it is in everyone’s
interest, and that in turn it is everyone’s responsibility, to work to prevent
gun violence.
___________________________________________________
Citations:
Public Opinion
1)
Teret SP
et al., Support for new policies to regulate firearms:
results of two national surveys, N Engl J Med, 1998; 339: 813-818
2)
Smith TW,
1999 National Gun Policy Survey of the National Opinion Research Center:
Research Findings, National Opinion Research Center, University of
Chicago, July 2000
3) EPIC MRA,
Special Statewide Poll- Gun Ownership Issues, Commissioned by The Michigan
Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, November 6, 2000