Poll: 52% Say US is Less Safe Today Than Before 9/11

In the aftermath of the recent terrorist attack in New York City, 52 percent of voters said the United States is less safe today than it was before Sept. 11, 2001, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey released on Monday.

Thirty one percent said the nation is safer than it was before the 9/11 attacks, while 17 percent were not sure.

Other results from the poll include:

• 51 percent of voters said that terrorist attacks are a bigger threat to the United States than military action from other nations and economic threats, marking the highest level measured on this question since regular tracking began in January 2013.
• Only 9 percent said military attacks are the bigger threat to the country, while 34 percent said it was economic threats.
• Among GOP supporters, 61 percent said a terrorist attack is a bigger threat to the U.S. than military action from other nations and economic threats, while 48 percent of independents and 44 percent of Democrats agree.
• Among women, 57 percent said the U.S. is less safe now than it was before 9/11, while 48 percent of men agreed.
• Among Democrats and Independents, 54 percent said the country is less safe today, while only 49 percent of Republicans thought so.
• 57 percent agree with President Donald Trump that tougher vetting is needed for those who enter the country.

The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on Nov. 1 to 2. The margin of sampling error is 3 percentage points, with a 95 percent level of confidence.

The number of people who do not think that the country is safer today is down from the highest level recorded on this question, 60 percent, registered just after the massacre at an Orlando nightclub last year.

Until just after 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011, voters remained fairly evenly divided on this question, but after his death more people said the country was now safer.

However, the sentiments of voters shifted again in April 2014, and there has been a growing trend that the country is less safe since then.

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