US support for gun control rises
Even before the Virginia Tech tragedy, polls showed a record number want more limits on firearms.
from the April 20, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
But academic researchers who study public opinion have reached a very different conclusion. On April 10, for example, less than a week before the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago released a report that found that gun ownership continues to decline as support for firearms control is rising.
Gun ownership in modern America reached a peak in the mid-1970s when 55 percent of American households reported owning a gun, according to the NORC study. In 2006, that share had dropped to 35 percent. Researchers attribute the change to two things: fewer people hunt as a recreational activity and, as the crime rate dropped during the 1990s, fewer people felt the need for a gun to protect themselves.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, some criminologists had speculated that fear created by the amorphous nature of the terrorist threat would cause support for gun control to drop, as more people felt the need to arm themselves against potential attackers. But the NORC study found that the opposite was true for more than 75 percent of those polled.
"The vast majority of Americans supported the idea that 9/11 increased the need for regulation of firearms," says Tom Smith, director of the NORC in a taped interview released with the study. "Support for regulation of firearms – for example, requiring a police permit before the purchase of a firearm – is very high [at 79 percent and] did not decline at all because of 9/11."
Gun advocates question those results, noting that the way polls are worded can affect the outcome. Erich Pratt of Gun Owners of America notes that a 2002 ABC News poll found that "almost three-fourths of the American public believe that the Second Amendment of the US Constitution protects the rights of individuals to own guns."
That finding is not inconsistent with either the NORC or the Hamilton College studies. For instance, the Hamilton study found that 81 percent of high school students believe the Second Amendment creates a constitutional right to own guns. But two-thirds of them also believe that that right should be regulated.
Mr. Pratt counters that the only poll that really counts are elections. "The ultimate survey comes every two years, and gun control doesn't do well at the polls and the Democrats have finally figured that out," he says.
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