Fact check: Do most Americans want stricter gun laws?
The issue: Voters will be hearing often about America’s gun laws as the 2020 election season gets underway and candidates try to appeal to voters with their policy positions. Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren told a crowd of thousands in Raleigh during her most recent visit to North Carolina that 90% of Americans want to see some “basic, sensible” gun legislation in the United States.
While it’s true that the majority of Americans want changes to gun laws, it’s also true that the majority of Americans also support the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms.
Why we’re checking this: When politicians claim that most Americans support a certain policy position, it’s important to determine what it is exactly they support, what “most” means, and who was asking.
What you need to know: In October, the Pew Research Center released its latest poll on what people think about gun laws, and found that more Americans want stricter gun laws than they did two years ago.
Pew Research found that the percentage of Democrats who want stricter gun laws increased by 11 points, and Republicans who want stricter gun laws also increased, by 7 points.
According to Gallup, a majority of Americans have supported stricter laws on firearms sales since 2015. Gallup’s poll in August also show a majority of Americans — 61% — would support a ban on semi-automatic guns, known as assault rifles.
The Civitas Institute, a conservative policy group in North Carolina, shows similar results in its poll of 500 likely voters in September. Civitas’ poll results showed 58% of respondents saying gun laws were not strict enough.
People were asked by Civitas: “In general, do you feel that laws regarding the sale of guns are too strict, not strict enough, or should be kept the way they are now?” Of those polled, 29% said gun laws should remain the same and 4% said they were too strict.
Of those polled, 48% either owned a gun or had someone in their home who owned a gun.
A May poll question from Quinnipiac University showed that 61% of American support stricter gun laws. The same poll showed that 94% of Americans support required background checks for gun buyers. And 77% of those polled support “requiring individuals to obtain a license before being able to purchase a gun.”
However, most Americans do not support any sort of ban on handguns, Gallup found in an October poll.
Asked “Do you think there should or should not be a law that would ban the possession of handguns, except by police and other authorized persons?”, 70% of those polled said no, there should not be a law banning handguns.
In 2017, PolitiFact Wisconsin fact-checked a claim that Americans support “common sense gun reform” and that 90% of Americans support universal background checks. They found multiple previous polls citing support for background checks ranging from 84% to 94%.
In North Carolina, as in all states, background checks are done on people who buy guns from licensed firearms sellers, according to federal law. State law prohibits the sale or transfer of a handgun to someone unless they have a permit from their county sheriff, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
North Carolina law requires a permit only for pistols. A bill was introduced in the General Assembly earlier this year that would expand the requirement, but was not moved out of committee for a vote.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation tracks how many background checks are initiated monthly and annually using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. In 2018, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper convened a working group for the State Bureau of Investigation to look for and fix gaps in the background check system, which resulted in adding thousands of convictions to the system.
Our conclusion. Most Americans do support stricter gun laws, based on results of multiple polls by several organizations over the past several years.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREOur process
We check claims that are widely shared or published; are about a topic of concern to many of our readers; can be proven or disproven through facts; and could cause people to act or vote in a certain way. This topic met all the criteria.
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Our sources. Here’s where we found information and research on this topic:
Pew Research Center: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/16/share-of-americans-who-favor-stricter-gun-laws-has-increased-since-2017/
Gallup: https://news.gallup.com/topic/guns.aspx
Quinnipiac University Poll: https://poll.qu.edu/
Civitas Institute: https://www.nccivitas.org/polling/north-carolinians-stricter-gun-control/
The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/03/27/one-in-five-americans-want-the-second-amendment-to-be-repealed-national-survey-finds/
PolitiFact Wisconsin: https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/oct/03/chris-abele/do-90-americans-support-background-checks-all-gun-/
This story was produced by The News & Observer Fact-Checking Project, which shares fact-checks with newsrooms statewide. It was edited by politics editor Jordan Schrader and managing editor Jane Elizabeth. Submit a suggestion for what we should check, or a comment or suggestion about our fact-checking, at bit.ly/nandofactcheck.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
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