Two-Thirds of Public Back Tough Gun Curbs, Poll Finds

Two-thirds of Americans in a new poll, including almost three out of four Republican women, say increasing restrictions on guns is more important than protecting the rights of Americans to own them.

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press conducted the poll before Thursday’s school shootings in Conyers, Ga. It was released as President Clinton traveled to Littleton, Colo., to observe the one-month anniversary of the nation’s worst high school shooting. That attack claimed 15 lives, including the suicides of the two assailants.

The poll came as the Senate approved a proposal to slap fresh restrictions on firearm purchases at gun shows and pawnshops, a move pushed by Senate Democrats and opposed by most Senate Republicans.

In the poll, slightly more than half of Republicans, 53%, said gun control is more important than protecting the rights of gun owners, but 42% said protecting gun owners’ rights takes priority.

Six years ago, 47% of Republicans picked gun control and 45% picked protecting gun owners’ rights, a statistical tie.

Republican women were key to the shift in overall GOP sentiment.

Almost three-fourths of GOP women said in the new poll that controlling gun ownership is more important, about the same percentage as all women. In 1993, about half of GOP women said controlling guns is more important, while slightly more than 4 in 10 said it is important to protect the rights of gun owners.

Potential GOP presidential candidate Elizabeth Hanford Dole’s internal polls have turned up similar results, fueling her efforts to be the first and most aggressive GOP candidate advocating gun control. Her advisors believe the strategy will solidify her political base--GOP women--and will help her court moderate Democrats, particularly women.

Three-quarters of Democrats in the poll said gun control is more important than protecting the rights of gun owners, an increase from the two-thirds who felt that way six years ago.

Overall support for gun control in the Pew poll was slightly higher than in its poll in December 1993. The percentage of people who feel television news contains too much violence also grew.

The poll indicated that almost two-thirds of Americans believe that TV news contains too much violence, compared with half who felt that way in 1993.

Seven out of 10 said TV entertainment programs have too much violence, the same level as the 1993 Pew poll and a 1971 Harris poll.

The Pew poll showed an increase of 8 percentage points in support for gun control since December 1993.

Associated Press polls taken just before and after the Littleton shootings showed a 9-percentage-point increase in people who believe tougher gun controls are a better deterrent than stricter enforcement of current laws.

In the Pew poll, almost all demographic groups showed increased support for giving priority to gun controls, with a shift of more than 10 percentage points among women, people older than 65 and those with some college education.

Men were more evenly divided, with 53% saying restrictions are more important and 42% saying protection of gun rights is more important.

The Pew telephone poll of 1,179 adults was taken May 12-16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 1/2 percentage points.