Poll: Majority of Americans favor stricter gun control

By Keating Holland/CNN

April 12, 2000
Web posted at: 6:07 p.m. EDT (2207 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Six in ten Americans believe that laws covering the sale of firearms should be more stringent than they are now, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Wednesday.

The latest survey results represent a slight drop from the days immediately following the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, but no change at all from earlier last year -- indicating that the Columbine tragedy has had no lasting effect on Americans' attitudes toward gun control legislation.

Poll results indicate little distinction between parents of young children and adults with no young children -- but there are big differences between men and women.

Seventy-one percent of women support tougher laws on firearms sales, regardless of whether they have small children. But just 50 percent of men support stronger laws, with only a small difference between fathers and other men.

A majority of Americans continue to have a favorable impression of the National Rifle Association -- 51 percent, which is identical to the favorable rating the group received after Columbine last year.

And, more than two-thirds of those polled say they favor laws that would hold parents legally responsible if their children commit crimes with a gun owned by those parents.

The poll was conducted April 7-9 among 1,006 adult Americans and has a margin of error of +/-3 percent, unless otherwise indicated.

In general, do you feel that the laws covering the sale of firearms should be made stricter?
Now	61%
April, 1999	66%
February, 1999	66%
Sampling error: +/-3 percent pts

In general, do you feel that the laws covering the sale of firearms should be made stricter?
Mothers	71%
Other women	71%
Fathers	55%
Other men	48%
Sampling error: +/-5 percent pts

In general, do you feel that the laws covering the sale of firearms should be made stricter?
Women who own guns	51%
Men with no guns	65%
Sampling error: +/-5 percent pts

What is your overall opinion of the National Rifle Association, also known as the NRA?
Favorable
Now	51%
April, 1999	51%

Would you generally favor or oppose a law that would hold parents legally responsible if their children commit crimes with the parents' guns?
Favor	69%
Oppose	24%
No opinion	7%
Sampling error: +/-6 percent pts