At the start of the Bill Clinton administration in 1993, 57 percent of Americans polled by the Pew Research Center said it was very important to control gun ownership. That rose to a whopping 66 percent in favor of stricter gun control by the time he left office in 2000. It remained relatively stable even throughout the eight years of President George W. Bush.
Only when Obama took over did the mood start to change. It went from 60 percent in favor of gun control to just 49 percent. In 2012, it was a minority of 47 percent in favor of stricter gun laws and 46 percent in favor of the status quo.
Recent gun violence have had little impact in swaying the public, despite the outrage at the time of their occurrence.
Shortly after the âBatman shootingâ in Aurora, Colo on July 20, 2012, a minority 48 percent wanted stricter gun control and 52 percent wanted to protect gun ownersâ rights in a poll taken a week after the movie theater shooting that killed 12 people watching a midnight viewing of âThe Dark Knight Risesâ. While that interest in gun control did rise from a similar poll taken in April of that same year, it rose from around 45 percent in favor of stricter gun laws.
Polls can be tricky. Weâre a fickle bunch. A lot depends on the questioning.
According to a series of CBS News polls asking if gun control laws should be made more strict, less strict or stay the same, 53 percent said it should be more strict when asked in the first week of February. That number remained within the margin of error from a similar poll taken in the first two weeks of January by CBS, with 54 percent saying they were in favor of stricter gun laws. Just after Sandy Hook, those in favor was 59 percent.
Itâs been falling ever since.
If this keeps up, Americans will likely be where they were in April 2012, when only 39 percent said gun laws should be stronger; 41 percent said they should be kept as they are and 13 percent said they should be loosened further.