According to a Pew Research Center poll, 85% of the public backs making private gun sales and purchases at gun shows subject to background checks, with comparable support across party lines. Other results from the poll:
• 80% favor laws to prevent mentally ill people from purchasing guns, with broad support from Democrats, Republicans and independent voters.
• 67% support creating a federal database to track gun sales, but there’s a partisan divide, with 84% of Democrats and only 49% of Republicans favoring the proposal.
• 55% favor a ban on assault style weapons, 54% back a ban on high capacity ammunition clips, and 53% support a ban on on-line ammunition sales, but again there’s a wide partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans on these proposals.
• 64% support putting armed security guards or police in more schools, but only four in ten say arming more teachers and school officials with guns is a good idea.
• 51% of Americans say it’s more important to control gun ownership than to protect gun rights. This is virtually unchanged from Pew poll that was conducted in the days following the Newtown, Connecticut shootings.
(via CNN)
