What Voters Really Think About Guns

Just replaying a few numbers from the June poll. Because gun safety has emerged following those incidents in Texas and Ohio, is a major issue in the US. And I think it's good to just refresh our recollection on some data that we gathered in June, which is more relevant than ever.Which is, do you think gun laws should be mostly at the federal level or at the state and local level? 57%, nearly six in 10 believe the federal government is the right place for gun laws.Do you think that murder by gun in American in the last five years has gone up, gone down, stayed the same? 62%, gone up. 14%, gone down. 24%, stayed the same.Technically, in the last five years, it has ticked up a little bit in the last two. But over the last 20 years, actually gun violence, not counting suicides, and more than half of gun violence is suicide related. Once you take those out and you're dealing with the homicides, in fact that number has come way down over the last 20 years. Although it's begun to tick up slightly per capita the last couple. Still numbers that are not as high as the public thinks.Should the White House ask Congress to pass legislation to raise the minimum age for purchasing guns from 18 to 21? Yes. This is a really powerful proposal. It turns out that 20% of all murders are committed by people who are aged 21 and under. So while drinking is restricted for age 21, right now in most states you can buy a gun at 18. Huge public support for raising that to 21.Should gun ownership be licensed like car ownership? 69%. Or just require background checks? Again, when I was working with Vice President Al Gore, I pushed him to make the proposal for national licensing, which he did. The backlash was so strong that he never continued to use that proposal on the stump. But he probably was the first and maybe the last President candidate, major nominee, to come out toward licensing itself.Background checks, as I pointed out in a recent piece in The Hill, are in effect licensing because they create a database that registers every gun owner by registering all the transactions anyway. It just doesn't have the kind of training and certification aspects that a true licensing program would have.Of course, those on the other side of this issue are always worried that once you have licensing, once you have universal background checks, that it's a matter of time before people push for confiscation of guns. I can't certify one way or the other. But that's the emerging argument, and why a lot of people who might support these things in principle are concerned about what would happen if they would be put in effect, especially when about 40% of all Americans have a gun in their household.Do you favor a measure that would ban all gun ownership except for police and military? Only 32% favor that, 68% oppose it. So a lot of people favor additional gun safety measures, even raising the age of purchase. They were in earlier questions we did, favor the assault rifles ban.Although there are relatively fewer murders by rifles than handguns. Most of the murders or homicides by gun are in urban areas with younger people. About half of all murders are committed by people 25 and younger. Old guys, geezers like me, we don't kill a lot of people with guns. Suicide rates, however, are much higher.So which of the following would do the most to curb school shooting? Banning assault rifles, 35. Enhancing school security, 34. Increasing commitment to mental health issues, 32. [inaudible 00:43:51] of the matter is, the public wants it all. The want all of these things done, not just one of them.Do you think that most school violence is related to mental health, urban gangs, or easy access to guns? Mental health, number one, 49%. 13, urban gangs. Easy access to gun though, at 39. Again, I come back to, they want it all. They understand it's a multi-faceted problem.