The Washington Post | Study: Gun owners support gun safety provisions
BY THE WASHINGTON POST, ON THE HILL
10/19/22 6:08 AM EDT
A new report by a bipartisan gun safety organization found that gun owners are overwhelmingly concerned about gun violence and support a number of specific policies to reduce shootings.
The report, commissioned by the 97percent group and conducted by Dr. Michael Siegal, a professor of public health at Tufts University, is unique in that it sought the opinion of gun owners in an attempt to measure whether this group opposes gun safety measures and backs policies that have generally been rejected as being too controversial to pass Congress.
Siegel said in an interview that he found that the gun debate has been “oversimplified” and falsely creates a divide between gun owners and non-gun owners.
“I think that this is going to change the way that policymakers and the public view the terms of the debate, they're going to realize that this is not actually as controversial an issue as the NRA and other groups are making it out to be,” Siegal said.
The study comes four months after Congress passed the most expansive gun safety legislation in more than two decades, but also left a lot of room for more to be done.
The study found that nine out of 10 gun owners are not a member of a gun rights group, such as the National Rifle Association or the more far-right Gun Owners of America. Both groups have political clout among federal lawmakers and are often the voice of the anti-gun control position. Fifty-three percent of gun owners don't support the NRA or do just “a little bit," according to the report.
The study also found that a large majority of gun owners support specific policy positions, including 69 percent who support red flag laws. That support increased to 81 percent when the red flag law included a fine for people who intentionally lie to avoid a person being flagged.
The study, which polled 1078 gun owners and held 96 focus groups, also found that a large majority of gun owners -- 80 percent -- support a ban on gun ownership for people who commit a violent misdemeanor. Current law bans guns for people who commit a felony.
Most gun owners did not, however, support banning types of weapons or ammunition, including an assault weapons.
“The vast majority of people agree with certain points,” said Mathew Littman, executive director of 97Percent, which says its mission is to find policy areas where gun owners and non-gun owners agree and whose leadership includes former Republican and Democratic congressman. “We're proving to people that this is where the vast majority are. And we want people to know that and we wanted their actions to reflect that.”
The group found that the policies that would reduce gun violence the most and have the most support include red flag laws, background checks and gun limits for violent misdemeanors. The report says it these policies would reduce homicides by guns by 28 percent and the suicide rate by 6.7 percent, which would have saved 7,500 lives in 2021.
What's next: The group in the next several weeks plans to put forward a detailed policy platform it says will reduce gun violence and would have the overwhelming support of the public.