Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

We fielded four national public opinion surveys to gauge support among Americans for policies aimed at reducing gun violence in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019. We include a standard battery of 20+ questions in all surveys with items including: background check policies, gun violence restraining order policies, dangerousness-related gun prohibitions, permit to purchase policies, gun dealer audit violation restrictions, assault weapon and large ammunition magazine bans, safety training requirements, and others. In 2019, we included new policy questions measuring some of the most salient current US gun policy issues including “stand your ground” laws, regulation of 3D-printed guns and rules for concealed carrying of firearms.

Probability-based web panels were designed to be representative of the U.S. adult population. We oversampled gun-owners to compare rates stratified by ownership status, and we collected detailed respondent characteristics, including sex, age, education, income, race/ethnicity, household size, marital status, housing type and ownership, employment status, state of residence, MSA status, political party identification and NRA membership.

With an estimated 8,000+ survey respondents across the four surveys including an estimated 2,800 gun owners, are closely examining views on a broad range of gun policies across key subpopulations (e.g., gender, race, region) and within subgroups defined by gun ownership. These findings will be important in offering a more nuanced picture of the contours of views among key subgroups of the public about gun policy in America.