Uncle gets his copy and paste on.

Gallup Guru:

Two new polls conducted since the Virginia Tech shooting deaths report measures of Americans’ attitudes towards gun control. There is little evidence in either of a surge in support for gun control in the aftermath of the tragedy.

An ABC News poll conducted over one day, Sunday April 22, gives us the most specific information. ABC found 61% of Americans favor “stricter gun control laws in this country”, the same as last October. The longer-term trend in support for gun control is down since Sept. 11, at which time – as I noted here — support for gun control dropped in most polls. (This most probably reflected less interest on the part of Americans in restricting access to arms with the specter of terrorist attacks in their minds.)

A Pew Research Center poll released on Monday is a little more difficult to interpret. It included a question on banning the sale of handguns, but the last time this question had been asked before their current April 18-22 survey was in March 2000. The current Pew survey finds 37% support for a law banning the sale of handguns. This is lower than in March 2000. But that was to be expected given the 9/11 effect I’ve discussed above. We don’t know what may have happened to attitudes as measured by this Pew question in the intervening seven years.

Hume:

If you are wondering why the apparent popular support for gun control does not translate into legislative action — there is ample illustration in the latest ABC News poll taken after the Virginia Tech shootings. 61 percent of the respondents said they favor stronger gun control laws — but as to whether they would do any good – 49 percent said yes and 50 percent said no. By a 52-to-29 margin, respondents said they prefer enforcing existing gun laws to passing new ones.

ABC devoted nearly two minutes to the poll during last night’s evening newscast — but never mentioned one of the most interesting results. When asked the primary source of gun violence – 40 percent said popular culture, and 35 percent said the way parents raise their children. Only 18 percent blamed the availability of guns.

John M. Snyder:

A FOX News poll last week found that only 19 percent of Americans believe tougher gun laws can help stop shootings like the one at Virginia Tech. A 71 percent majority disagrees.

A Zogby poll indicated that 59 percent do not think stricter gun control policies would help prevent tragedies like the one at Virginia Tech, and only 36 percent believe they would help.

An AP-Ipsos poll showed that 49 percent think gun laws should remain as they are or be made less strict than they are now, and 47 percent that they should be more strict.

Posted in uncategorized on April 25th, 2007 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |