More than a month after Barack H. Obama and the Democrats began to use the Newtown tragedy to push for more gun control laws, support for such laws has moved up sharply, but it’s still not a majority position. In fact, more Americans remain satisfied with current gun laws than want them tightened.
PRINCETON, NJ — In the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn., school shootings, and as Vice President Joe Biden leads a federal task force that will recommend ways to curb gun violence in the U.S., 38% of Americans are dissatisfied with the nation’s gun laws and want them strengthened. This is up from 25% who held this set of views a year ago, and is the highest since 2001. Still, more Americans are either satisfied with current gun laws, 43%, or think they should be loosened, 5%.
The nation’s demographic shift may spell the end of the Second Amendment in coming years. Gallup found that 49% of nonwhite Americans currently support tightening gun control laws. There is also a gender gap on tightening gun control laws, with 41% of women favoring such tightening, to 35% of men in support.
Lacking majority support for a measure had proven to be little impediment to Barack Obama, who signed the healthcare law over the objections of about 57% of the American people at the time. At that time, the Democrats held the White House and both houses of Congress. If Democrats retake the House and hold the Senate in 2014, a push for stricter gun control is virtual certainty.
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