A New Fox News Poll Shows Surprisingly Firm Support For Stronger Gun Control Laws

On the day after teen Parkland shooting survivors led the March For Our Lives, Fox News has released word from their latest gun control poll. The results are, to put it mildly, surprising to see from a conservative network whose hosts and contributors voice enthusiastic support for the Second Amendment. That portion of the Bill of Rights has gotten a strong elbow from the poll, which was actually conducted between March 18-21, which means that, possibly, these numbers may be higher (or lower) following Saturday’s nationwide rallies.

One notable portion of the results shows that those polled now deliver a 13-point margin for those who feel that protecting people from gun violence is more important than gun rights (53-40 percent). In addition, those polled voiced support for several measures they’d favor in legislation:

[T]here’s substantial support for specific measures to reduce gun violence, including: requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers (91 percent), requiring mental health checks on all gun buyers (84 percent), raising the age to buy all guns to 21 (72 percent), putting armed guards in schools (69 percent), and banning assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons (60 percent).

However, it’s also worth mentioning that the same poll shows that 38% of people find that it’s “extremely” important for Congress to pass gun control laws, but a mere 7% think that it’s “extremely” likely to happen. In other words, people are both jaded and realistic about whether Congress will take action.

(Via Fox News)