In the wake of an October mass shooting at Umpqua Community College, 55 percent of Americans said they would like gun sales laws to be stricter than they are now, according to a Gallup survey released Monday. That's an increase of 8 percentage points from 2014. The newest report also saw a drop in the number of people who favor less strict laws than the U.S. currently has.
Most Gallup surveys since 2007 — the year of the Virginia Tech shooting — have found that a minority of Americans wanted stricter laws on gun sales. The only exception followed the Sandy Hook school shooting in December 2012, when support for stricter laws momentarily spiked to 58 percent.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
'Despite all past efforts, system failures occur'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Gabbard fires intelligence chiefs after Venezuela reportspeed read Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired the top two officials leading the National Intelligence Council
-
Critics' choice: Reimagined Mexican-American fareFeature A shape-shifting dining experience, an evolving 50-year-old restaurant, and Jalisco-style recipes
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
