Americans' Dissatisfaction With Gun Laws Highest Since 2001

[sarisataka]

Americans' Dissatisfaction With Gun Laws Highest Since 2001

http://www.gallup.com/poll/167135/americans-dissatisfaction-gun-laws-highest-2001.aspx

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' dissatisfaction with U.S. gun laws and policies has increased to 55%, nearly matching the high of 57% in 2001. Forty percent are satisfied, down from the historical average of 47% since Gallup began asking this question in this way in 2001.

...........

Overall, Americans' satisfaction with gun laws ranks near the middle of a list of 19 issues measured in Gallup's 2014 update of its annual Mood of the Nation survey. The highest levels of satisfaction were with the nation's military strength and ability to deal with terrorism; the lowest were with poverty and homelessness and the state of the nation's economy.

Americans may be dissatisfied with gun laws because they believe they should be stricter, or because they believe the laws are too strict as they are. Therefore, Gallup asks those who are dissatisfied with gun laws to choose among explanations for their dissatisfaction. Those who are dissatisfied have historically leaned heavily in the direction of wanting stricter rather than less strict laws.

But this year, the gap between those wanting stricter gun laws and those wanting less strict laws narrowed as a result of a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans who want less strict laws, now at 16% up from 5% a year ago. Support for making gun laws stricter fell to 31% from 38% last January. The January 2013 poll was conducted shortly after the December 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting tragedy, which sparked some state governments to consider new gun laws and a robust national discussion about the issue.

*Cross post from GCRA for discussion*

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. Sure Can't Tell In Colorado. Lost 3 Senators Over Gun Control.

The Rocky Mountain Gun Owners are now out for political blood in the next election so they can abolish all the laws passed in the last session.

[shedevil69taz]

2. Would be very interesting to see

exactly how the questions in this poll were worded

[sarisataka]

3. I believe it was two questions-

...please state whether you are very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. How about the nation's gun laws or policies?

Would you like to see gun laws in this country made more strict, less strict, or remain as they are?

There appears to have been some follow up questions for those answering very..., but they are not fully listed.

[Duckhunter935]

4. interesting trendlines

Americans have become more dissatisfied with gun laws over the past year, but this is attributable to a greater percentage who say gun laws are too strict, rather than not being strict enough. Americans' changing views could set the course for future gun law debates and legislation.

The control side seems to be having some issues

[ManiacJoe]

5. One obvious problem with all of these surveys

is that they never test the knowledge level of the participants. While recent events might have marginally elevated the knowledge of gun laws for a small percentage of the population, the Great Masses are woefully ignorant which results in opinions that are less than useful.

[petronius]

6. As always, it would be very useful to know how much the respondents actually

know about the current state of gun laws, and which laws specifically they think should be more/less strict. particularly in the case of this result - since national laws haven't changed much in the past year, it seems like the uptick in dissatisfaction results from local/state level changes. If that represented, for example, a bunch of Californians thinking California laws are too strict it would be a very different thing then a bunch of Arizonans, say, thinking NY laws are too strict...