Recent polling suggests that Americans are very worried about gun violence. A Quinnipiac University poll taken from Oct. 26 to 30, right after the Maine shooting, found that 46 percent of registered voters worried about becoming a victim of a mass shooting themselves. That matches a high set in July 2022 in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting at Robb Elementary School, and is 9 points higher than a low of 37 percent in December 2017, the year the survey began asking the question.
Americans also feel pessimistic that anything will change. Indeed, 68 percent don’t believe the federal government will do anything to reduce gun violence within the next year, per the Quinnipiac poll.
Article starts with a question, the answer is no
I feel like the biggest chance we had to change was after Sandy Hook Elementary. There were 26 dead kids and teachers. This should have been the moment that kickstarted a discussion and movement on gun control legislation.
Instead, we got a lot of “thoughts and prayers” and politicians (along with groups like the NRA) killing any gun control efforts. And that’s not even getting into guys like Alex Jones spreading conspiracy theories and harassing grieving families while saying that they were lying about their kids being dead. (I really hope Jones fails at hiding his money, gets every last dime seized by the families that won lawsuits against him, and ends up penniless.)
The answer to “Will x change public opinion on guns” is always no. Everyone’s mind is made up. We’ve collectively decided dead children is simply the cost of doing business.
Our gerrymandered, billionaire-backed minority rule legislative branch has decided that. Not “everyone”