A new NPR/Ipsos poll has revealed that a staggering 1 in 4 gun owners trust the federal government to look out for their best interests. The poll also found:
- The poll also revealed that a majority of gun owners believe that the passing of new gun control measures is a slippery slope towards the confiscation of all firearms. Three-quarters of Republicans and half of independents also believed this.
- 60% of Republican gun owners think that the government wants to confiscate firearms at some point and 55% of Republicans said that new gun control measures are a violation of the 2nd Amendment. 61% of those polled said that they did not think that mass shootings would stop with the passage of new gun control regulations.
- 72% of those polled said that they were in favor of raising the minimum age to purchase a semi-automatic rifle to 21 while 67% were in favor of raising the age to purchase any time of firearm to 21.
- The poll found that 8 in 10 gun owners were in favor of background checks for all gun sales. This would include those firearms made at home and those sold at gun shows.
As reported in Newsmax:
Broken down by political party, 72% of Republican gun owners and 53% of independents opposed such a ban, while 84% of Democrats were in favor.
Roughly 1 in 5 gun owners reported owning an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle, including 25% of Republicans. When asked if “people like me” need to own these types of weapons, 45% of gun owners said no and 35% said yes. Again, though, there was a wide partisan split. Three-quarters of Democrat gun owners said no, while almost half of independents and a third of Republicans said no.
The most common reasons for owning guns were for personal protection (79%), for family protection (78%), and for sport shooting (54%).
The poll was conducted June 15-21, before the mass shooting in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park but after those in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas. It surveyed 1,022 adults who reported owning at least one gun.
