Plurality of Americans Do Not Believe Stricter Gun Laws Would Have Prevented Buffalo Shooting: New Poll

A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll out Wednesday offers insight into the difficulty of changing gun laws in the United States given varying attitudes among the public.

The poll was conducted from May 19 to 22, just days after the deadly mass shooting in a Buffalo grocery store killed 10 Black Americans, who were racially targeted.

The survey of 1,573 U.S. adults found that, despite the Buffalo shooting, only 5 percent of Americans said guns were “the most important issue to [them] when thinking about this year’s election.”

Yahoo! News’ Andrew Romano notes that this lack of intensity surrounding gun reform is only one of many statistics that illustrate the challenges lawmakers face in pushing for stricter gun laws.

One of the most stunning finds in the survey came when respondents were asked if “stricter gun laws could have prevented the mass shooting in Buffalo.” 43 percent of Americans said no, while only 37 percent said yes.

Romano notes that “ambivalence” over the efficacy of gun laws is a key find in the survey:

A plurality of Americans (44%) again say that “there is a way to stop mass shootings in the U.S., but it would require drastic change in laws.” Yet the number who say that such shootings “can already be stopped by enforcing the current laws” (21%) or that “there is no way to stop” these shootings (20%) is almost as high.

Romano adds that another complicating factor is that “nearly all support for stricter laws is concentrated on the left, where nearly three-quarters of Democrats (73%) favor such measures.”

“Seven in 10 Republicans want laws to be less strict (24%) or the same (47%), and the number of independents who agree — 32% the same plus 13% less strict — is greater than the number who disagree (43% more strict),” he explains, adding that, “Without bipartisan backing, no new laws will survive the Senate.”

There is some room for hope however as Americans agree by wide margins that gun buyers should undergo criminal and mental health background checks.

Sixty-eight percent of respondents support “requiring criminal and mental background checks for all those buying guns, including at gun shows or private sales.” That figure includes 56 percent of Republicans. Meanwhile, only 18 percent of Americans oppose criminal and mental health background checks, according to the survey.