Only 19% of American Voters Think that Passing more Gun Control Will Reduce Crime, Only 40% think that Either Passing More Gun Control or More Strictly Enforcing Gun Control would Reduce Crime. Americans want Criminals Arrested and Kept in Jail.

The CPRC commissioned a new survey by McLaughlin & Associates of 1,000 general election American voters. Despite all the claims about support for gun control, only 19% of voters think passing more gun control will reduce crime, slightly more (21%) think stricter enforcement of existing gun control. Taken together that means 40% of voters think that gun control has something to do with reducing crime. Normally surveys only give voters those two options. But voters think arresting criminals and keeping them in jail is much more important with 54% of voters taking that stand.

The bias with the existing surveys, which limit answers to more gun control or enforcing gun control, is that they make it seem that the only options for reducing crime involve gun control. An example is a Rasmussen survey conducted virtually at the same time (December 17-19) on a similar set of voters and asked the question the traditional way. In that case, 56% of people preferred more strictly enforcing existing laws, and 31% wanted to pass more gun control laws– both percentages are much higher than when respondents have the option of arresting criminals and keeping them in jail.

Looking at the cross tabs shows that only Democrats, liberals, and people who voted for Democrat congressional candidates supported more gun control laws. People who live in all parts of the country, both men and women, all racial groups, and urban, suburban, and rural all support higher arrest rates and keeping criminals in jail.