Americans by and large support gun-rights protections, but their opinions on the matter differ significantly based on who they plan to vote for this November.
Those are the key findings of a Pew Research Center poll of registered voters released last week. The survey found that 52 percent of registered voters believe it is more important to protect gun rights than it is to control gun ownership. Meanwhile, 54 percent of voters believe gun ownership does more to increase public safety by allowing law-abiding citizens to protect themselves than it does to reduce it.
However, feelings split heavily along partisan lines. Eighty-five percent of Trump supporters agreed it is more important to protect gun rights, compared with just 19 percent of Biden supporters. 86 percent of Trump supporters say gun ownership improves public safety. In comparison, 76 percent of Biden supporters say it reduces safety by giving too many people access to firearms and increasing misuse.
The survey findings highlight the growing ideological divide among American voters and their attitudes toward firearms. Those divides could take on new significance heading into this November’s presidential election as voters will be asked to choose between two candidates on polar opposite ends of the spectrum on gun issues.
President Biden is coming off of a first term that saw more significant action on gun control than any other presidency since at least Bill Clinton. He signed the first new federal gun restrictions in decades into law, issued around a half dozen new gun-related restrictions by executive order, created the first cabinet-level Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and headlined a conference put on by Everytown for Gun Safety. Biden is also campaigning on doing even more in a potential second term, including enacting a sales ban on popular rifles like the AR-15.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has closely aligned himself with the NRA and pledged to undo all of Biden’s gun-control efforts.
Rural Trump supporters were the most likely to report favoring gun-rights protections over gun control at 93 percent, followed closely by white and male Trump voters at 89 percent each. Those three groups were also the most likely among Trump supporters to agree that gun ownership does more to improve safety by allowing law-abiding citizens to protect themselves. On the other hand, Hispanic Trump supporters were less likely than other Trump voters to say the same, though 70 percent still expressed a preference for protecting gun rights.
Among Biden voters, Asians (7 percent) and college graduates (11 percent) were the subgroups least likely to put gun rights above gun control. Meanwhile, Black Biden voters (26 percent) and those without college degrees (26 percent) were the most likely.
One area where voters overall were more sour on guns was quantity. Fifty-two percent of voters said an increase in the number of firearms in the country is bad, compared with 22 percent who said it’s a good thing. The split was largely driven by strong feelings among Biden supporters, 83 percent of whom said an increase in the number of guns in the country is bad for society. Among Trump supporters, just 21 percent said they thought a rise in the number of guns is a bad thing, while 40 percent said it’s good. Another 38 percent said they thought it was neither good nor bad.
The Pew Survey was conducted from April 8 to April 14. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
