Updated March 26, 2023
In the wake of recent mass shootings and partisan disagreement in Washington, D.C. about causes and prevention, it's easy to view gun control and gun rights as a very divisive issue. But there are plenty of viewpoints on guns and gun laws where Americans agree, regardless of their politics.
Major pollsters have found sharp disagreement in the U.S. on whether gun laws should be made more or less strict in general. But on subjects such as allowing handgun ownership, conducting background checks for gun sales and increasing focus on mental health, large majorities of the U.S. public see eye-to-eye.
Here are a few examples of data and stories to support that:
- 2024 data from Pew Research Center found that 88% of Republicans and 89% of Democrats support restricting gun ownership for people with mental illness. Separately, 2023 polling by the McCourtney Institute found that 86% of U.S. adults back universal background checks for all firearm sales and transfers.
- A 2022 poll by the University of Chicago reported that 71% of Americans believe gun laws should be stricter. That same survey found 85% support for banning gun purchases by people with mental illness, and 59% in favor of a nationwide ban on semi-automatic weapons.
- 2024 Gallup data found that only 20% of Americans support a handgun ban, including just 6% of Republicans, 22% of independents, and 33% of Democrats—reflecting a broad consensus that handgun ownership should remain legal.
- A 2023 Fox News poll showed overwhelming support for a range of gun control measures: 87% support universal background checks, 80% favor mental health checks for gun buyers, 80% back red flag laws allowing police to confiscate guns from dangerous individuals, and 77% support a 30-day waiting period on purchases.
A 2022 study from the RAND Corporation estimated that 67% of Americans support a voluntary buyback program where the government purchases unwanted firearms. - 2018 data from Pew Research Center suggests that 84% of Americans support barring gun purchases by people on federal no-fly watch lists, including 86% of Democrats and 83% of Republicans.
- A 2017 NPR/Ipsos poll found that 82% of Americans supported banning bump stocks—attachments that enable semi-automatic firearms to fire more rapidly. The Justice Department federally banned bump stocks in December 2018.
Partisan and biased news coverage often makes issues like gun control seem more divisive than they are. But survey data can tell a more complete story of how average Americans actually view these issues.
See more examples of common ground on issues where you might not expect to find it:
Here's Where Democrats and Republicans Agree on Abortion
Democrats and Republicans Actually Agree on Many Policing Reforms
Democrats and Republicans Actually Agree on These Immigration Views and Policies
Democrats and Republicans Actually Both Support These Free Speech Positions
Henry A. Brechter is the Managing Editor of AllSides. He has a Center bias. Email him: [email protected].
Image Credit: Victoria Pickering/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
