While opinions on gun ownership and gun policy remain sharply divided along party lines, Americans across the political spectrum increasingly see gun violence and violent crime as issues of national concern, according to a new Pew Research study published as gun-related death rates in the United States continue to rise annually.
According to a research issued on Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans have few common groundings when it comes to gun ownership and gun policies. Seventy-nine percent of Republicans and independents who lean Republican said they think having a gun makes you safer, while almost as many Democrats and independents who lean Democratic said the opposite. The Pew research found that there was just one policy option that was supported by both political parties, and that was limiting access to firearms for those with mental conditions.
Despite these dissimilarities, a survey found that 60% of Americans (an increase of 7% from 2018) consider gun violence to be a “very big” national issue. Fifty-nine percent of Americans consider violent crime to be a’very large’ national issue, up seven points from 2018. This concern extends across political lines in the United States. Sixty-one percent or more of Americans predict an increase in gun violence over the next five years, while only seven percent anticipate a decrease.
Both Democrats and Republicans have expressed growing anxiety over recent criminal activity. Crime is seen as a’very important’ issue by 64% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats, both increases of 8 percentage points from 2021.
Meanwhile, both Democrats and Republicans are more worried about gun violence than they were 11 points ago. Although more Democrats than Republicans consider gun violence a “very big” problem, the difference between the two parties’ supporters on this topic is still more than 40 percentage points wide.
As the frequency of mass shootings, gun-related homicides, and gun-related suicides continues to rise in the wake of the epidemic, the data from Pew arrives at a crucial time for Republicans on the campaign trail. The most recent year for which crime statistics are available (2021) shows that 48,830 Americans lost their lives due to homicides and suicides involving firearms.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was negotiated between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill in response to several high-profile mass shootings, including the May 2022 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The Act increased federal funding for community and mental health initiatives and strengthened background checks. The bill was the first significant piece of gun control legislation passed in three decades when President Joe Biden signed it into law in July 2022.
But the White House and congressional Democrats have kept pushing for more gun control legislation at the federal level. Background Check Expansion Act was reintroduced in February by Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy. The bill would expand federal background checks to cover nearly all sales and transfers of weapons between individuals; yet, it has a very low chance of passing either the Republican-controlled House or the narrowly Democratic Senate.
In a speech he gave in Connecticut earlier this month, Vice President Biden expressed his willingness to do more to combat gun violence, saying that the Safer Communities Act was “an important first step” but that “we are not finished.”
