Fewer Americans support a ban on so-called assault weapons than Quinnipiac has ever recorded, the pollster reported on June 8.
Americans are about evenly divided on whether the government should ban assault weapons, the poll found, the lowest show of support for such a ban since February 2013, when Quinnipiac first started asking about it.
These results come even as mainstream media outlets and Democratic politicians, including President Joe Biden, have ramped up calls for an assault-weapon ban in light of recent mass shootings and ahead of this year's midterm elections.
A plurality of respondents, including most Republicans and independents and 31 percent of Democrats, told Quinnipiac that mental health issues are the main cause of mass shootings committed by young people. Only 19 percent of all respondents say "the availability of guns" is the main cause. A majority of Americans, meanwhile, oppose any efforts to limit the number of firearms in the country.
Only 32 percent of respondents approve of how Biden has handled gun violence, just one aspect of Biden's dismal approval ratings. Only 33 percent of Americans approve of the president's performance, while 55 percent disapprove. A wide majority of independents—61 percent—frown on what the president's doing.
Minority voters have turned on the president, the poll found, in line with previous polling. Nearly 60 percent of Hispanics disapprove of the president. Biden's approval among blacks, meanwhile, cratered from 63 percent in May to just 49 percent this month.
A plurality of voters told Quinnipiac that they want to see the Republican Party retake control of Congress this year.