GUNS - 80% of Americans Favor Increasing Minimum Purchase Age to 21

Let's talk a look at guns. Guns has been rising as an issue. Two thirds of people believe that murder by gun in America in the last five years has gone up. And when you ask them what do you think is such an increase related to, 21% say urban gangs, 30% say mental illness, and 48% say, hey, easy access to guns. Underscoring a lot of people believing that if access to guns were more limited, that you would see less gun violence.

Do you favor or oppose tougher penalties for parents failing to secure their guns from their kids? Wow, 86%. And as you know, there have been some mass murders in which kids took their parents' guns, and pretty much a consensus issue. Do you favor or oppose a measure that would ban all gun ownership except for the police and the military? Wow, 36% do favor that, but 64% say no, they wouldn't want to have a society in which guns were so restricted.

An issue that I've written about a little bit after looking through the statistics is should the White House as Congress to pass legislation to raise the minimum age for purchasing guns from 18 to 21? I believe this was done in Florida. 80% support that measure. If you look at the numbers, of gun murders, right, and there's two kinds of gun violence, suicide and homicide, suicide has actually been the fastest growing gun violence, and there are about 15,000 homicides. But 20% of the homicides are committed by people 21 and under. And in fact, 50% are committed by those 25 and under. And old guys like me, not a lot of murders committed by people in their 60s. Always an exception to every trend. But, it is interesting that those under 20, 25 and under commit about half the murders, and that certainly lends itself to the question, do you think people under 25 should be permitted ... prohibited from purchasing a gun? You may remember people under 25 can't rent a car. 51% said yes to that, 49% said no. So, 80% are at age 21, 51% at age 25.

And there continues to be very strong support for legislation to improve background checks. That's really a consensus issue in America. 92% favor that. School safety improvements, 90% favor that. Removing firearms from people who are a threat by court order, that's again in the high 80s. Allowing military veterans and retired police to work as school safety, that's also favored too, almost 90. Banning bump stocks, 82. Assistance for states in training schools, 70%. Forming a commission to study age restrictions for gun purchases, and the role of video games, about 70%. So, I think the public, after all of the recent incidents, is looking for some action here. I think action along all of the dimensions, the background checks, training school personnel, and they also do back no gun under 21.

Do you think that the laws related to better controlling guns are needed more in cities, the suburbs, or the rural areas? 76% said cities, 17% said suburbs, and 7% said rural areas. So, there is a sense that the biggest gun ownership issues and homicide or gun violence issues are in urban areas, and 76% said that's where the focus should be.