Polls & Research

Gun Control Could Become 2008 Issue

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many adults in the United States express a preference for politicians who favour stricter gun control laws, according to a poll by Ipsos-Public Affairs released by the Associated Press. 54 per cent of respondents say they are more likely to support a presidential candidate who favours more rigid regulations.

On Apr. 16, Cho Seung-hui killed 32 people—fellow students and teachers—at the Virginia Tech University campus in two separate incidents, before turning his gun on himself. The shooting is the deadliest of its kind in American history.

In April 1999, two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves in a high school in Columbine, Colorado. The Centers for Disease Control reported in 2002 that there were 220 school-related shootings in the United States from 1994 to 1999, resulting in 253 deaths.

The U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment guarantees Americans the right "to keep and bear arms." Some American states have enacted their own gun control regulations, independent of existing federal legislation.

On Apr. 22, Democratic New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton discussed the situation, saying, "The first thing we ought to focus on is figuring out what has gone wrong in actually enforcing all the laws that we have. (...) It's come to light that Virginia hasn't really enforced (a provision) to put information like being committed involuntarily, as the shooter was, into the database and then have the database effective enough so it pops up if somebody tries to buy a gun."

U.S. president George W. Bush is ineligible for a third term in office. The next presidential election is scheduled for November 2008.

Polling Data

Would you be more or less likely to support a candidate for president who favours stricter gun control laws?