One minute it’s a normal day at school, the next it’s national news. Americans have seen it happen far too many times. Tragedy strikes and many Americans ask if it could have been prevented. Our relationship with guns is an endless debate. Support for stricter gun laws has shifted over time, with more support following tragedies. Yet…the last major federal law significantly restricting legal access to firearms was passed in 1994!
The National Firearms Act of 1934 was the first major gun law passed in the U.S. It made buying certain weapons, like machine guns, harder in an effort to reduce gang violence. However, firearms in the hands of any civilian can be dangerous. A World War II Veteran in 1949, named Howard Unrah, carried out one of the first mass shootings in the U.S. He killed 13 people using a Luger pistol but, despite the tragedy, there were no major revisions to gun laws until 1968, when the Gun Control Act was passed. The law made it harder for criminals/certain groups to buy guns. Additionally, the government had more control over the sales.
In 1968, when asked how to reduce crime, a Gallup Poll showed that only 1% of U.S. adults felt the need for stricter gun laws. The same poll showed that only 1% named gun control as the most important national problem, while 9% were more concerned about crime.
By the 1970’s, the debate started to grow. A 1976 Gallup Poll found that 35% of U.S adults named gun control as an important voting issue. By the late 1980’s, a majority of Americans supported stronger gun control laws. A Yankelovich/Time Magazine/CNN Poll found that 65% of adults supported stricter gun laws with 28% opposing. However, the opinions of gun owners were different. The same poll found that 63% of gun owners thought that stricter gun laws would not reduce violence with 31% believing they would. The other 6% were unsure.
In 1993, support for stricter gun control was rising. According to Time/CNN/Yankelovich Partners Poll, 70% of Americans favored stricter gun laws and only 27% opposed. Congress passed the Brady Bill that same year. The bill required a five-day waiting period for background checks prior to the purchase of all guns. A Gallup Poll from 1999 showed that 89% of Americans were still in favor of the law.
In 1994, Congress passed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which banned the sale and manufacture of specific semi-automatic firearms. After the law took effect, crimes with those banned weapons went down. But overall gun violence did not drop much. According to Christopher Koper, Professor at George Mason University, who studied the ban for the Justice Department, the law’s effects were limited because many older guns and magazines were still legal and widely available. The ban expired in 2004 and was not renewed, not because it was proven to fail, but because Republicans controlled Congress at the time.
Immediately following the 1999 Columbine school shooting, Princeton Survey Research Associates/Newsweek Poll found that only 11% of adults thought that stricter gun laws would be the best solution. The majority (49%) thought that there should be a larger focus towards kids who are anti-social. Also, 21% believed that schools should increase security and a few (14%) claimed that reducing violence in entertainment would be the solution.
Public support for stricter gun laws was less in the early 2000’s compared to 1993. A Time/CNN/Yankelovich Partners Poll found that 59% of Americans favored, and 35% opposed, stricter gun laws. This decline was short-lived as more and more terrorism attacks occur.
A few years after 9/11, a 2006 NORC General Social Survey found that 77% of Americans thought that gun laws should be stricter because of terrorism attacks. This increase from the early 2000’s shows that, as threats to public safety increase, more Americans are in favor of stricter gun control laws. This trend continued into 2007. Following a mass shooting at Virginia Tech University, a CBS News/New York Times Poll found that 32% of Americans believed that stricter gun laws could have prevented the incident. Furthermore, 21% believed it would have done at least a little bit. At the time, as terrorism attacks and mass shootings increased, so did support for stricter gun laws.
A major turning point in the gun debate came not from public opinion, rather the Supreme Court. The 2008 Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller involved a special police officer, Dick Heller, who challenged the city’s laws that banned handgun registration and required that firearms must be kept unloaded and disassembled or trigger locked. He argued it violated the Second Amendment because guns at home should be available for personal protection. The court agreed with him, ruling the Second Amendment protects the rights to keep an operational gun at home for self-defense. The ruling strengthened individual gun rights even as many Americans supported stricter gun laws.
In the early 2010’s, mass shooting were happening more frequently, particularly in schools. After the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Americans were left with the same question, would stricter gun laws have helped? A CBS News Poll found that the public was divided, with 26% thinking stricter gun laws would have helped a lot, 16% a little and 51% had no effect.
Also, in the wake of the mass shootings at a 2017 concert in Las Vegas and the 2018 Parkland school shooting, a Marist Poll/NPR/PBS Newshour found many 59% believed this country needs stricter gun laws. Only 25% believed that more people need to carry guns.
In April 2023, a Beacon Research/Shaw & Co. Research/Fox News Poll found that 43% of registered voters believed that stricter gun laws would make the country safer, while 25% believed it would make the country less safe. Many Americans today believe gun control can make our country safer but there is still a large number that disagree or feel it won’t make a difference.
Today, the debate over gun control versus gun rights remains deeply divisive. While support for stricter laws often rises after mass shootings, new laws don’t follow. Court rulings, politics, and different views on safety and gun rights all play a role. As shootings continue, many are left asking: how can the U.S. reduce gun violence while still protecting individual rights?
This post was written by Marist Poll Media Team member Tommy Rogers.