A year after Newtown, Americans divided on gun laws

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

One year after the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Americans divide on what should happen to laws covering the sale of guns, according to a new CBS News poll. Forty-nine percent advocate stricter gun laws, while 36 percent think gun laws should be kept as they are, and 12 percent think they should be made less strict.

Results are nearly identical to what they were in May, though support for stricter gun laws is down from a year ago right after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School – when support increased to 57 percent.

There are partisan differences:  just 25 percent of Republicans support stricter gun laws, while such a measure is favored by 70 percent of Democrats and a plurality of independents.  A slight majority of gun owners think gun laws should be kept as they are now.

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This poll was conducted by telephone December 4-8, 2013 among 1,015 adults nationwide. Data collection was conducted on behalf of CBS News by Social Science Research Solutions of Media, Pa.  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 three percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher.  Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.  This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.