Americans' support for stronger gun laws has grown significantly following recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, according to Gallup poll results.
A total of 66% of Americans said they wanted stricter laws covering the sale of firearms, Gallup polling found. That was up 14 percentage points from a seven-year low in October, and the highest since shortly after the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting in 2018.
Twenty-five percent of respondents preferred that laws remain as they are, and 8% say they should be less strict.
A record-high 55% of survey respondents wanted not only to enforce existing gun laws more strictly but also pass new gun legislation, Gallup said.
An equal percentage (55%) of registered voters said gun policy will be "extremely important" to their vote in November's midterms, while another 27% considered it "very important."
For just the second time since 2000, a majority of Americans favor passing new gun legislation in addition to enforcing current laws more strictly.
May shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo and at an elementary school in Uvalde resulted in a total of 31 deaths.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators released the text of the first major gun safety legislation in decades on Tuesday.
Three of the measures addressed in the Senate bill were tested in the Gallup poll and enjoy broad support from Americans, including majorities across party lines.
Those measures were:
- Requiring background checks for all gun purchases. (92% of Americans supported)
- Prohibiting the purchase of guns by people who have been determined to be a danger to themselves or others. (86%)
- "Red flag laws" authorizing courts to allow the police to temporarily confiscate weapons from such dangerous individuals. (81%)
Among major parties, 94% of Democrats wanted to see stricter laws — highest for the group since 2001, 38% of Republicans and 66% of independents said the same.
Although majorities of Democrats (86%) and independents (57%) favored passing new laws, Republicans (24%) were much less supportive.
Gallup, which has tracked Americans' preference for gun laws since 1990, conducted the poll June 1-20.
Gallup said the latest support for tougher gun laws exceeds readings in the immediate aftermath of massacres in 2017 at a Las Vegas concert and in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
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