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The debate over gun ownership in the United States is complicated and intricate. Each argument has some nuances; each proposal includes asterisks. Both sides often see their position in absolute terms, a view that the other side is always quick to observe ignores the real limits.
It is, in other words, a debate that can challenge a simple categorization. In a new survey conducted by Marist for NPR and PBS NewsHour, however, pollsters drew an interesting and useful line to consider the debate over guns and armed violence.
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Respondents were asked what they considered most important: protecting gun rights or controlling armed violence. It is a simple dichotomy, it is true that simpler than the debate itself, but it allows gradation. Is it more important to protect the right of people to own weapons, or is it more important to address the increase in gun-related deaths in the United States?
In general, Americans were more likely to say that controlling armed violence is more important, from 59 to 35 percent. Among gun owners, as expected, the protection of gun rights was the majority position, albeit barely.
The biggest difference, in fact, was not the ownership of weapons. It was for a party. Democrats said controlling armed violence was more important by a margin of nearly 90 points. The independents said the same thing, more closely. Among Republicans, however, more than two-thirds said protecting gun ownership was more important: a higher level of support than even among gun owners themselves.
Other divisions in the poll also align with partisanship. White Americans without a college degree — a very Republican group — are more likely to say it’s more important to protect gun rights. So are Americans living in rural areas, in part, it’s safe to assume, because they’re also more likely to have a gun.
Given that the current debate over armed violence is focused on mass shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, it is interesting to note that homeless people in the home gave more priority to controlling armed violence than parents. with young children in the house. home. Less surprising is the gender divide, as men are more likely than women to say that protecting gun rights is more important.
Marist asked the same question in 2013. At the time, the nation was almost divided to identify which approach was more important. What has changed since then? Democrats are much more likely to say that the fight against armed violence is more important.
Independents have gone from being more likely to prioritize gun rights to focusing on controlling armed violence.
What has changed since 2013? The polarization has certainly increased. But so has the number of gun deaths in the United States. Gun violence has increased and mass shooting events, which tend to crystallize sentiment over gun ownership, have continued unabated.
The result is a broader sense that reducing armed violence should be seen as more important than protecting the rights of gun owners, except among members of the party that controls half of the Senate and almost half of the Chamber.