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Gun Control in the US: Some Findings [1]
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Date: 2022-08-01
In today's politics in the United States, one of the most contentious topics is gun regulation. Every time there is a shooting that kills many people at once, the two opposing viewpoints on gun control get more contentious.
According to the findings of the Small Arms Survey conducted in 2015, there were 88 firearms for every one hundred people living in the United States.
Now that number has exploded to 122 guns for every 100 people.
Those who push for more regulation of firearms are understandably concerned about their own safety. As reported by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, each year there are around 114,994 people are shot.
Those who are against regulation are concerned that it will lead to a reduction in safety as well. They argue that if citizens' right to carry guns is restricted, then they will be unable to defend themselves in their day-to-day lives or, in the worst case scenario, against a government that has turned against the people.
When it comes to buying guns in the U.S., all 50 states follow a set of minimum rules that are thought to be important.
Personal Protection
The overwhelming majority of people who own firearms say they do so for the purpose of protecting themselves from potential threats. According to research carried out by Gallup in August 2019, the majority of people who own handguns claim that they do so for the purpose of ensuring their own personal safety and security. When respondents were given the opportunity to respond in any way they liked to an open-ended question, 63 percent of them brought this up.
Less than one-third of respondents pointed to activities such as hunting, general recreation, or sports; the fact that their firearm was an antique or a family heirloom; or the fact that their job required them to use their gun in some capacity as their reasons for owning a firearm. Forty percent of the responses made some kind of reference to hunting (5 percent).
Weapons in Remote Areas
A survey conducted in April 2021 found that Americans living in remote regions are more likely to support gun access policies, whereas Americans living in cities are more likely to support gun control policies that place more restrictions on the private ownership of firearms. This pattern continues to exist even within each political party, despite the fact that rural areas are more likely to vote Republican while urban areas are more likely to vote Democratic.
Compared to the 51% of Republicans living in urban areas who support such restrictions, just 31% of Republicans living in rural areas are in favour of laws that prohibit the sale or possession of guns designed to look like assault rifles.
Stricter Gun Control Laws Are Supported by 53% of Americans
According to a survey conducted by the Center for American Progress in April 2021, fewer than half of American citizens (53 percent), continuing a trend that began in 2019, favor stricter gun control. A smaller percentage of respondents (32 percent) say that the regulations as they are now written are appropriate or that they should be less strict (14 percent). The proportion of American adults who believe stricter gun laws are needed has decreased from 60% in September 2018 to 40% in January 2019.
There has been a change in perspective among Republicans and independents who lean Republican. At this time, there is a greater propensity among Republicans (27 percent of them) than there is among Democrats to feel that existing gun regulations should be loosened rather than strengthened (20 percent). In 2019, a greater number of Republicans advocated for more stringent gun control measures, while a smaller number of Republicans backed more lax gun regulations (31 percent vs. 20 percent). Both in 2013 and 2014, about half of Republican respondents to a survey said that the nation's gun regulations were moving in the right direction.
Attitudes regarding Guns Differ
People of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, members of different political parties, and members of all sorts of communities all come at the problem of gun violence from very different angles. Eighty-two percent of adult black people, which is by far the greatest proportion of any other racial or ethnic group, feel that gun violence is a very important problem in today's society. This is the highest percentage of any other racial or ethnic group. In contrast, just one-third of those who identify as white have this position on the question of how to address the problem of gun violence. Adults of Hispanic origin had a prevalence rate of 58 percent.
Democrats and independents who lean Democratic are significantly more likely to see gun violence as a major worry than Republicans and those who lean GOP. This contrasts with Republicans and those who lean Republican (73 percent vs. 18 percent). In the United States, urban residents account for 65 percent of the population, and they agree with this assertion. This is in contrast to the percentage of people who live in suburban regions, which is 47 percent, and the percentage of people who live in rural areas, which is 35 percent.
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