Support for guns is at an all-time high, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday. Thirty-six percent of people polled favor a ban on assault rifles, down from 44 percent in 2012 and 57 percent in 1996.
"Assault rifles have been a contentious issue in American life for decades. Two years after President Bill Clinton signed a federal assault weapons ban in 1994, Gallup found that a solid majority of Americans favored such a ban," writes Art Swift of Gallup.
"By the time the 10-year ban expired in 2004, Americans were evenly divided. And by 2011, public opinion had tilted against the assault weapons ban, with 53% opposed and 43% in favor. In Gallup's 2016 Crime poll, conducted Oct. 5-9, opposition now exceeds support by 25 percentage points, 61% to 36%."
Guns have been a big talking point during the 2016 election cycle, particularly because of mass shootings where people used assault rifles in Orlando, California, Colorado and Connecticut.
Support for an assault weapons ban has dropped significantly over the past 20 years, but more so for Republicans, according to Gallup. Twenty-five percent of Republicans polled favor a ban while 50 percent of Democrats polled want it.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, "the poll shows only 27 percent support for a ban on handgun ownership, a three-point drop from last year. It also shows support for an assault weapons ban at 36 percent, an eight-point decline from the last time the question was asked."
The poll sampled 1,017 people in the United States and was conducted Oct. 5-9. The margin of sampling error is +/-4 percentage points.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.