A large majority of Americans believe that those who want to harm themselves or others are not less likely to do so if they don't have a gun, a poll released on Thursday shows.
The Pew Research Center's Guns in America report found 75 percent of respondents believe that "people who want to kill or harm others will find a way to do it whether they have a gun or not" while 24 percent believe "people who want to kill or harm others are less likely to do it if they don’t have a gun." The poll found a similar gap when it asked people about suicide. Seventy-three percent said "they would find a way to do it whether they had access to a gun or not" while 27 percent said "they would be less likely to do it if they didn’t have access to a gun."
Most of the people polled also support a variety of gun control measures. Eighty-eight percent favor preventing those with mental illnesses from buying guns. Eighty-three percent favor banning those on government watchlists from purchasing guns. Sixty-eight percent support banning so-called "assault-style rifles." Seventy-two percent favor creating a federal database to track all gun sales. Sixty-four percent favor banning magazines with a capacity of 10 or more rounds.
Pew also asked respondents if they favor "making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background check," which 85 percent said they did, but there is no exception in federal law for gun shows and the majority of sales which take place at them are already subject to background checks.
Though Pew found most support gun control policies when asked in their poll, it also found that gun owners were almost twice as likely as non-owners to have actually contacted a public official in regards to gun policy. Twenty-one percent of gun owners told Pew they had contacted a public official compared to 12 percent of non-owners.
Pew also found that respondents were nearly equally split on the effect more Americans owning guns has on crime. Thirty-five percent said more guns would equal more crime while 33 percent said more guns would equal less crime and 32 percent said it wouldn't make a difference. One percent of respondents didn't answer the question.
The poll also found gun owners are more likely to find fundamental freedoms essential than non-owners and 55 percent believe the NRA has too little or the right amount of influence over gun laws.