The nation’s political divisions are one of the defining dynamics of our time. Reflecting on the results of the latest NBC News poll, Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research, who helped conduct the poll with a Republican counterpart, said last week, “The survey revealed a country on fire, seething with anger at our political leaders and too often at each other.”
But as much as Americans disagree on seemingly everything, there’s a striking public consensus on one of the nation’s biggest issues. Fox News reported last week on the results of its latest national poll.
After a series of mass shootings this spring, including the killing of several students at a private Christian school in Tennessee, voters would prefer focusing on specific gun control measures rather than arming citizens to reduce gun violence.
In a time when positions on provocative issues seem popular if they can garner a bare majority, it was tough not to notice the lopsided findings from the Fox survey:
- 61% support a ban on assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons.
- 77% support requiring a 30-day waiting period for all gun purchases.
- 80% support allowing police to take guns from those considered a danger to themselves or others.
- 80% support requiring mental health checks on gun buyers.
- 81% support raising the legal age to buy a gun to 21.
- 81% support improving enforcement of existing gun laws.
- 87% support requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers.
There’s no reason to see such results as an outlier: All of this polling data is consistent with similar findings from other major surveys.
What’s more, in case this isn’t obvious, the findings from Fox’s poll reinforce the fact that there’s a meaningful degree of bipartisanship on the issue. A Washington Post analysis took a closer look at the data and found, “At least two-thirds of Republicans support universal criminal background checks, a minimum age of 21, a 30-day waiting period, red-flag laws and mental health…
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