Poll: Support for stricter gun control at 10-year high

CBS

By Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus and Stephanie Condon

Following the devastating mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., support for stricter gun control laws is now the highest it's been in a decade and has surged 18 points since the spring of this year, according to a new CBS News poll.

Fifty-seven percent of Americans now say gun control laws should be made more strict, according to the poll, conducted Dec. 14 - 16.

CBS

The poll followed the news of the Dec. 14 shooting, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The public's renewed interest in stricter gun laws is evident on the White House website, where more than 150,000 people have signed a petition asking for immediate action on the issue. The horrific event has prompted some pro-gun Democrats to call for stricter gun laws, though the Republican party has remained largely silent on the issue. President Obama has said that in the coming weeks he will use whatever power is at his disposal in efforts to prevent anymore such tragedies.

In January 2011, following the shooting of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, a CBS News poll found that 47 percent of Americans backed stricter gun laws. That figure dropped off, however, in polling conducted about a year after the incident. In April of this year, just 39 percent of Americans supported stricter gun laws.

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While more than half want tighter gun laws, three in 10 think laws covering guns should be kept as they are. Only nine percent think gun laws should be less strict.

CBS

Still, fewer than half of Americans (42 percent) think stricter gun laws would have helped prevent the violence at Sandy Hook Elementary. Thirty-six percent felt that way after the shooting of Giffords, but after the incident at Virginia Tech in 2007, more than half of Americans said tighter gun laws would have done a lot or a little to prevent that shooting.

Views on gun control and its possible impact on the Newtown shooting differ by political party. Most Democrats support stricter gun control laws and think they would have done at least something to prevent the violence at Sandy Hook. By comparison, fewer Republicans favor stricter gun control measures, and most think tighter laws would have done nothing to prevent what happened in Newtown.

There are also regional differences on the issue of gun control. Support for tougher measures is highest in the Northeast (at 66 percent) and West (at 68 percent). Those in the Midwest and South are less likely to back stricter gun control laws.

In the days following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, just over a third of Americans said that they feel schools in their community are extremely or very safe. Just 22 percent said that about U.S. schools overall.

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Opinions on the safety of schools in one's own community have changed little over the years. Parents' views on gun control laws and school safety are similar to those of Americans overall.

News of the school shooting in Connecticut has captured the attention of the American public. More than nine in 10 have heard or read at least something about it, including 69 percent who have heard a lot about the shooting.

For full poll results, see next page.

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This poll was conducted by telephone from December 14-16, 2012 among 620 adults nationwide.

Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus four percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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[American-2013]

This is a Joke. If you clam to be American and you think banning guns is the answer then you should change your clam! Look at the statistics! 11,000 people are so die from gun violence a year! 78% of that is gang related! which out of that 11,00 22% is 2,420 or so people that die from guns (suicides, death by police, murder non-gang related, accidental...). 2,420 people out of the 311 million people in the use according to the 2011 cenus that means you are making huge laws based on 0.00077665686% of the population! not even 1% of the united states population. Social media and far wing democrats and liberals are trying to brain wash the mass population! This is a gun grabbers dream to have these bad news reports! They are using the deaths of those individuals to get their way... Which again look at the facts! I'm a normal everyday american and not some crazy gun nut. I have a job, a family, and bills. The normal everyday American needs to start talking about whats right and whats wrong not social media and these far wing government groups!! Wake up America!!!

[unabled]

So these anti Bill of Rights, Anti Republic, Anti American adult's logic is to protect the CHILDREN? (these will be the same children that will grow up to be the wife beaters, drug addicts, murders, thieves, liars, Presidential war criminals, Congressional war criminals, white collar thieves and of course but not least the neighborhood SQUIDS) How is that logical that they want to protect all the kids when some of those children will grow up being the adult KILLERS and trouble makers they so blind-heartedly try to protect? Then turn around and try to take away the peoples ability to protect themselves. This Country is a REPUBLIC not a Democracy that can make laws to undermine the Bill of Rights. And what fool thinks the First Amendment was created to alter or undermine the rest of the amendments to the Bill of Rights? Below is for those adults that still remember when they were kids and went to school. staring in 1954: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

[AG4JAZZ]

Explain to me, how more gun control laws would have prevented this guy from killing those people in Sandy Hook...HE DIDN'T OWN THE GUNS!!!
It's the same old thing with brain dead Americans...over react without thinking.
The problem is ILLEGAL GUNS...and as with drug control, if someone want one, someone will find a way to ILLEGALLY acquire one.
As for LEGAL gun ownership and the 2nd amendment.....we, as American citizens, have the right to protect ourselves and our family from anyone...this includes our own government, which is why our forefathers wrote the second amendment.
As for those naive enough to think that we don't need to protect ourselves from our government...wake up, there is evidence all around us...the patriot act stripped us of numerous rights and freedoms...are you truly represented in congress or are corporation and millionaire and billionaire represented and we pay there way
Read "1984" by George Orwell. Read 'Family of Secrets" about the power and abuse of power at the hands of the bush family and others...read ant book about JFK's assassination.
But whatever you do, stop believing everything you're told on the nightly news and in the newspapers...thinks about what they are saying and question it....Remember, they are ALL controlled by corporations and millionaire.

[unabled]

Thank God there are citizens like you that understand the age of misinformation.

[kathleen11209]

But listen. Without attempting to alienate ALL people of good will, law-abiding citizens who CRINGE at these kinds of happenings (and NO! I do NOT blame anyone who has pro-arms, Second Amendment's idea's!) - could we NOT just at least have an HONEST and CANDID discussion on this most traumatic issue....Mass Murders, whereby rapid-fire, heavy duty firearms are used for the execution of a bloodbath? Can we not just examine international numbers and statistics....compare and contrast those country's whereby there is strict, to non-rights-to-arms (except for hunting purposes) laws in effect? I DO look at Russia, as an anti-gun person. It is a huge country, probably comparable in size to ours...but there are EXTREMELY STRINGENT anti-arms possession laws in effect. We are NOT reading about regular massacres in that country, to the same degree that WE, allegedly a more enlightened country, seems to be constantly reeling from. I cannot accept that WE are more violent by nature, more mad, angrier, whatever it takes to motivate a mass-murderer. NO! THe biggest elephant in the room (to ME...) is the far easier access to high-definition firearms. Do you REALLY feel that you need an Uzi, an AK47, or a Semi-Automatic weapon to defend yourself against an intruder? Plus SADLY, half of these weapons USED in such events...Comunbine, CT, Virginia Tech, Fort Hood....these were ALL legally registered weapons, in any event! So with ALL DUE RESPECT to those who are vehemently Second Amendment rights...can't be discussed nor interfered with, under ANY given circumstance....why? This is no longer the mid to late 1700's, when we HAD no police force, no Armed Forces, no legal system to settle disputes (so that there was a necessity for duals). Nor do we have any Pioneers, needing weapons to protect themselves in isolated regions against "Injun's". George Washington's support for the Second Amendment...that we NEEDED a citizenry to act as a checks and balance system against a governement who might try to defy or supercede or usurp the rights of the citizenry? No! This is now 2013....we BELIEVE and HAVE ESTABLISHED democratic, republican, constituational government...so forget about your militia's standing guard to protect the country. If this great United States REALLY had it in for it's citizens, my God, the arsenal in it's possession at THIS point would annihilate ANY silly little bands of militias! Carpet-bomb 'em all (IF you ARE that paranoid about our government lol!)....well your GUNS wouldn't stop the U.S. government @ this stage. And why see it like that? That distrustful of democratic politics? So...there are MY arguments. This subject merits deep discussion, insightful debate, and based on HOW MANY MASSACRES we have witnessed over eons now....LETS TALK, with ALL DUE RESPECT. For the betterment and SAFETY of OUR CHILDREN and a whole lot more!

[unabled]

O.K lets talk.
THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT THE 2ND AMENDMENT.
with "ALL DUE RESPECT" this is not the mid 1700's and its not a "BIG ELEPHANT" in the room, it's about a den of SERPENTS of 2013 that are controlling the incorporated, militarized "democratic, republican" government and news media that are attacking the Bill of Rights and Constitution. So get educated on the difference between a Democracy and a REPUBLIC. And here is some enlightenment from the bible. Hosea 4:6
"Can we not just examine international numbers and statistics."
Lets examine the support for a government that use's drones, illegal wars, and a industrialized military to kill thousands of innocent children in country's like Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. for Freaking oil interests, power and can put you or I, American citizens on a HIT LIST with out DUE PROCESS OF LAW (another Constitutional right the USA (democrat, republican) government has taken away from the people) That makes the USA government guilty of murder and crimes against HUMANITY. AND IN ANY TALKS TRUTH MUST PREVAIL. So yes Kathleen you and I are both murderers of children and our tax dollars have bound us to that simple truth. How will you ever protect your children when you will not protect the children of the world by not supporting your "democratic, republican" governments attempts to dismantle the Bill of Rights and at the same time make assassinations of USA citizens and innocent people world wide legal?
AGAIN THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT THE 2ND AMENDMENT. LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC and the FLAG THAT REPRESENTS IT.

[EnsombrezaLobo]

Suicide is the cause of more deaths than car crashes, according to an alarming new study.

The number of people who commit suicide in the U.S. has drastically increased while deaths from car accidents have dropped, making suicide the leading cause of injury death.

Suicides via falls or poisoning have risen significantly and experts fear that there could be many more unaccounted for, particularly in cases of overdose.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2207089/56-million-suicide-prevention-programme-launched-study-reveals-Americans-lives-die-car-crashes.html#ixzz2HgMlsMbD
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[bellhotrod1]

For decades the government has pushed the "ban assualt weapons" or a certain type of gun as a response/solution to the murders that happen from time to time......and they need to be told loudly and firmly that the American public and its citizens are not stupid morons.....GUNS DO NOT KILL PEOPLE,...people kill people,....and if ALL the guns were taken from all the law abiding citizens, then the criminals would be the only ones with guns!! (they would still get their guns, the majority of true criminals do not aquire legal/reqistered guns, they buy them on the black market)
So when would we feel more secure??....if only criminals had guns??....or when we have the capability of arming our homes to protect our families in a crisis??

[henriCervantes]

if people kill people, maybe we should take the people from my cold dead hands

[bellhotrod1]

For decades the government has pushed the "ban assualt weapons" or a certain type of gun as a response/solution to the murders that happen from time to time......and they need to be told loudly and firmly that the American public and its citizens are not stupid morons.....GUNS DO NOT KILL PEOPLE,...people kill people,....and if ALL the guns were taken from all the law abiding citizens, then the criminals would be the only ones with guns!! (they would still get their guns, the majority of true criminals do not aquire legal/reqistered guns, they buy them on the black market)
So when would we feel more secure??....if only criminals had guns??....or when we have the capability of arming our homes to protect our families in a crisis??

[bellhotrod1]

For decades the government has pushed the "ban assualt weapons" or a certain type of gun as a response/solution to the murders that happen from time to time......and they need to be told loudly and firmly that the American public and its citizens are not stupid morons.....GUNS DO NOT KILL PEOPLE,...people kill people,....and if ALL the guns were taken from all the law abiding citizens, then the criminals would be the only ones with guns!! (they would still get their guns, the majority of true criminals do not aquire legal/reqistered guns, they buy them on the black market)
So when would we feel more secure??....if only criminals had guns??....or when we have the capability of arming our homes to protect our families in a crisis??

[USPatriot2013]

Since when does 620 people represent the opinion of America? CBS has shown their true colors. There are journalism ethics that are in question here. What happened to reporting the facts, hearing both sides and then letting the readers form their own opinion?

[henriCervantes]

620 represents 620 times more than you do. now crawl back under your flag with you toy pistol.

[USPatriot2013]

This gun focus is NOT about saving lives. Far more children are killed every day in car accidents while NASCAR has safety technology that saves lives in 200 Mph crashes. Far more children die per swimming pool than per gun. Statistics show more guns = less crime. All these mass shootings were in places where guns are banned which are "safe zones" for criminals. This effort by our government is not about gun control, it is about taking away our right to protect our homes and our freedom.

[henriCervantes]

at least a car gets me across town. the only thing a gun gets me is in trouble.