Americans’ dissatisfaction with gun laws at new high: Gallup poll

A majority of Americans surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with current gun laws in the U.S. amid a recent string of mass shootings affecting the country, according to a new Gallup poll.

The poll, published Wednesday, found that 63 percent of respondents said they are dissatisfied with the nation’s laws and policies on firearms, while 34 percent of those surveyed said the opposite.

The results marked the highest percentage of Americans that are dissatisfied with current gun laws in the last seven years, with a seven-point increase from last year, when 56 percent of respondents claimed they were unhappy.

Satisfaction with gun policies in the country has also fallen since last year’s poll, tying the lowest on record, according to Gallup. 

Among political party lines, 54 percent of Republican or Republican-leaning Independent respondents said they are satisfied with the nation’s laws and policies on handguns, while 44 percent of those surveyed expressed their dissatisfaction with current law.

On the other side, 84 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents expressed their dissatisfaction with the nation’s laws and policies, while 14 percent of those surveyed said they are satisfied with the nation’s current policies.

Around 60 percent of Independent respondents express their dissatisfaction with the nation’s laws and firearm policies, while 36 percent of those surveyed said they are satisfied.

The poll comes in the aftermath of a mass shooting that happened at Michigan State University earlier this week — when a 43-year-old gunman opened fire at two locations on the school’s East Lansing campus. The incident resulted in the deaths of three students, and left five other individuals with critical injuries.

The incident at MSU follows several other mass shootings this year alone, including an incident last month that left 11 people dead in Monterey Park, Calif., during Lunar Year celebrations.

President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in June of last year following two other mass shootings — one at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and another at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y.

The legislation enhances background checks for gun purchasers between the age of 18 and 21, makes obtaining firearms through straw purchases or trafficking a federal offense and clarifies the definition of a federally licensed firearm dealer.

In light of recent events, Biden has praised Senate Democrats who introduced a pair of bills to ban military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines as well as raise the age of purchasing them to 21 years old.

The latest Gallup poll was conducted from Jan. 2 to Jan. 22 with a total of 1,011 respondents participating in the survey. The poll’s margin of error was 4 percent.