(Reuters) – The massacre at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers this week has once again spurred calls for Congress to act to stem U.S. gun violence, including from Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and President Joe Biden.
Already, some senators have suggested they would be unlikely to support any legislative fixes. “Guns are not the problem, OK? People are the problem,” Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville said Wednesday. “We’ve had guns forever. And we’re going to continue to have guns.”
Polling suggests that stance is out of step with the U.S. public. Nearly two-thirds of Americans support moderate or strong regulations of gun ownership, including 53% of Republicans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll of 940 people conducted online on Wednesday, one day after the Uvalde shooting.
Here is where Americans fall on a number of other gun-related proposals, according to the poll:
RED-FLAG LAWS
Seventy percent of people surveyed said they support so-called “red flag laws,” which allow police to confiscate firearms from people that courts say are dangerous. Nineteen states already have such laws in place; they allow certain people, such as law enforcement officers or family members, to petition a court to temporarily seize guns or prevent firearms purchases.
In addition, 79% of people – and 78% of Republicans – said they would be more likely to support a candidate who supported passing background checks and red flag laws for all new gun purchases, ahead of November’s midterm elections in which party control of Congress and multiple statehouses are up for grabs.
RAISING LEGAL AGE
Nearly three-quarters of people, 72%, support the idea of raising the legal age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old. The gunman in Uvalde was 18 years old and legally purchased two semi-automatic rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition days before the shooting.
In a separate incident earlier this month, a white gunman in Buffalo, New York – who killed 10 people at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in what is being investigated as an act of “racially motivated violent extremism” – was also 18.
NRA AFFILIATION
Fifty-seven percent of people, including 43% of Republicans, said they were somewhat or much less likely to support a political candidate who took money from or attended events held by gun makers or the National Rifle Association (NRA), the gun influential rights advocacy group.
Top Republicans are scheduled to speak at the NRA’s annual meeting in Houston this week, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott and former President Donald Trump.
ARMING TEACHERS
Americans were more divided on the issue of arming elementary school teachers or staff with guns, a proposal that has been floated by some Republicans. Forty-five percent of Americans backed arming teachers – including 58% of Republicans – while 41% of people did not.
Teachers’ unions have opposed this idea.
PROTECTION AGAINST MASS SHOOTING
A slight majority of people – 54% – said the best way for Americans to protect themselves from mass shootings was to carry a firearm themselves. Republicans were most likely to espouse this, with 70% agreeing with that statement.
The poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
(Reporting by Makini Brice; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
