More Americans support less strict gun laws

Fewer Americans than ever (43 percent) say they want stricter gun laws, according to a recent Gallup Poll. Forty-four percent said they want gun laws to stay the same and 11 percent said the laws should be less strict.

This shift in thought started after 2007, when the majority who favored stricter laws since 1990 began to decline. Record high numbers of people think handguns and semiautomatic rifles should not be banned, and 60 percent think the government should more strictly enforce existing laws instead of creating new ones.

More Republicans than Democrats oppose stricter gun control laws. According to the study, those in favor of stricter laws are Democrats, people without guns in their homes and people living in the East.

The author of a study based on the poll, Jeffrey Jones, says he's unsure about reasons for the pro-gun shift because it doesn't seem to be connected to an increase in crime or gun ownership. He suggests the prevalence of pro-gun attitudes could be linked to increased acceptance of guns, support for the Second Amendment and more adoption of libertarian views, which herald the importance of a person's private property rights. He says pro-gun views grew even after several high-profile shootings, like the one that nearly killed U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.

Pro-gun views have an effect on public policy, says Brown University economist Brian Knight. In his study of state-to-state gun trafficking, he found illegal guns travel from lax states into strict states, usually in close proximity, and crimes involving guns are more prevalent in states with weak gun laws. He said more federal gun control would be beneficial because states "tailor policies according to local preference." (Read more)