Interest Groups

A majority of Americans support gun control. That includes a broad consensus in favor of background checks for gun buyers and tests, licenses, and a register for gun ownership. Consistent with the polling below is a 2024 Gallup poll that showed 52% of American adults favor a ban on assault rifles, with very different partisan division. (82% Democrats, 50% Independents, 27% Republicans). 1 And yet these and other popular restraints on guns have repeatedly been rejected by elected representatives, when they dare propose them at all. Even in the aftermath of school massacres and mass shootings, federal and state legislatures did not act. We will see why.