Dr. John Lott has a new op-ed at The Federalist. . Gun control advocates often point to polls showing overwhelming support for gun control. For instance, in May, a headline for an NPR/PBS Newshour survey proclaimed: “Most Americans say curbing gun violence is more...
Survey on gun ownership
How Asking Gun Control Questions Differently Dramatically Changes the Results: Comparing NPR/PBS versus the Crime Prevention Research Center
A survey in May for NPR/PBS NewsHour by Marist had the headline: “Most Americans say curbing gun violence is more important than gun rights.” The Survey from May 15th through the 18th claimed: “6 in 10 say controlling gun violence is more important than...
Would you want to live or not live in a state with increasing taxes, that allowed minors to get gender surgery without parental permission, that encouraged undocumented immigrants, that allowed abortions up to 9 months, had more restrictions on legal gun ownership, and allowed felons to vote? 66% to 34% say No
The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll shows that the vast majority of Americans would rather live in states with Republican policies than Democrat ones, though it isn't clear which policies are most driving their preference. Only liberals (by a 63-to-37 percent margin) and...
At Newsweek: There Is No Firm, Sustained Support for Gun Control
Dr. John Lott and Congressman Thomas Massie have a new op-ed at Newsweek on important new research from the CPRC. A frequent talking point in the gun control debate is that Americans overwhelmingly support "common sense" gun control measures, such as universal...
Support for Universal Background Checks is Very Sensitive to the Question Asked. People don’t like the laws when they find out about what the laws actually mean.
The Crime Prevention Research Center hired McLaughlin & Associates to survey people's views on universal background checks. We started with the standard question asked by survey groups such as Gallup and Morning Consult+Politico, and they added details about these...
New New York Times poll shows that only 1% of Likely Voters think guns are the most important problem facing the country today
In a new New York Times poll (October 17-21, 2022), while 26% of likely voters think that the economy is the most important problem facing the United States today, 18% think that it is inflation, and 5% think it is immigration, just 1% mention gun control policies....
Original Research: Support for Red Flag Laws Depends on People not understanding how Red Flag Laws Operate
The Crime Prevention Research Center hired McLaughlin & Associates to survey Red Flag Laws for 1,000 general election voters from July 21st to 24th, 2022. The survey asked people whether they supported Red Flag Laws, then asked whether they still supported it when...
Survey: By a 49%-to-37% margin, Americans support armed teachers to stop school shootings, those with children are much more supportive
Rasmussen Reports has a new national survey of 1,000 American Adults on August 21-22, 2022, showing that by a 49%-to-37% margin, Americans support armed teachers to stop school shootings. This is a significant change from their February 28, 2018 survey, where...
Survey: Most Americans Favor Giving Schoolteachers and Administrators the Option of Being Armed at School
A new YouGov survey of 1,500 U.S. adult citizens was conducted from May 28th to 31st. The survey has some interesting results regarding whether people favor arming teachers (pp. 134-5). All Americans except for Democrats, liberals, and blacks favor arming teachers and...
Support for Stricter Gun Control Drops, by a 50% to 43% margin Likely U.S. Voters oppose stricter regulations, the Wealthy and those who went to Graduate School most likely support more regulations
A new Rasmussen Reports from April 12-13, 2022 shows that most likely voters by 50%-to-43% opposed stricter gun control. By a 51%-to-38% margin, they don't think that stricter gun control would have stopped the recent subway shooting in New York City, and by a...
New Survey on the Impact of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine on American’s support for gun ownership
McLaughlin & Associates Higher crime rates and the war in Ukraine are both working to reduce support for more gun control.
A Gallup survey on gun ownership shows that asking if people own a gun in their home is not the same as if they own a gun
We have done a lot of work on the biases in surveys of gun ownership (see here and here). But we should point out that a Gallup survey shows that simply asking people if they own a gun in the home, they are missing a couple or few percent of people who may own a gun...