CBS Poll: 65 Percent Favor Stricter Gun Laws

Support for stricter gun laws has jumped 8 points in just two months in the wake of last week's school shooting massacre in Florida, with 65 percent of Americans in favor of more restrictions, according to a CBS News poll.

That includes a 14-point jump among Republicans in favor of more restrictions since the last survey in December, according to the CBS poll.

The 65 percent represents the highest number recorded in CBS' poll for stricter gun sale laws.

More results:

• 43 percent of Republicans favor stricter gun laws, up from 29 percent
• 63 percent of Independents favor stricter gun laws, up from 55 percent
• 26 percent overall said gun laws should stay the same
• 6 percent overall said gun laws should be less strict

Sadly, 53 percent of those surveyed say they've come to expect mass shootings vs. 44 percent who are still surprised by them, according to the CBS poll.

Exactly half of those surveyed are against arming teachers and school officials, the results of which fall along party lines.

Those results:

• 44 percent favor arming teachers and school officials
• 50 percent are against arming teachers and school officials
• Republicans: 68 percent are for it vs. 28 percent against
• Democrats: 74 percent oppose it vs. 20 percent who favor it
• Independents: 47 percent favor; 46 percent oppose

Further, just 33 percent approve of President Donald Trump's handling of the massacre that left 17 dead last week in Parkland, Florida.

That number is driven by the 32 percent of Independents who approved of Trump's performance; Republicans were on the high end and Democrats, predictably, on the low end.

This poll was conducted by telephone Feb. 20-22 among a random sample of 1,012 adults nationwide. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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