It's an all-too-familiar pattern in American politics: In the wake of mass shootings, support for stricter gun laws spikes temporarily. But that shift in public opinion largely fades over time, and Congress doesn't pass anything.
The inaction bubbled into outbursts of frustration from Democrats on Monday, after at least 58 people were killed in a Las Vegas shooting.
"The thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference," said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a leading gun control advocate since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012. "It's time for Congress to get off its ass and do something."
If this shooting follows the trend of others in recent years, public support for stricter gun control laws will spike temporarily -- and then that jump will mostly evaporate in the months ahead.
The most recent in-depth public polling on gun control that wasn't conducted in the wake of a mass shooting comes from the Pew Research Center, via two surveys conducted this spring.
The Sandy Hook senator has a blunt message: 'It's time for Congress to get off its ass and do something'
The Sandy Hook senator has a blunt message: 'It's time for Congress to get off its ass and do something'
Among the highlights from that poll and others conducted in recent years:
People agree there's a problem, but...
Pew found that 83% said they consider gun violence in the US a big problem -- including 50% who called it "a very big problem."
The divide comes when Americans -- 47% of whom said they consider the right to own a gun essential to their sense of freedom -- are asked what to do about it.
How about making it harder to obtain guns? Almost half, 47%, said there would be fewer mass shootings if it were harder for people to legally obtain guns in the United States, while 39% said that wouldn't make a difference, and 13% said it would lead to more mass shootings.
One example of how difficult it is to build public support for stricter gun laws came last year in Nevada, where a ballot measure to expand gun background checks was approved -- but barely, winning 50.4% support to 49.6% opposition out of more than 1.1 million votes cast. That vote came despite Pew finding 65% of Americans support background checks for private gun sales and at gun shows.
Some other areas of seeming agreement: 68% told Pew they favor a ban on assault-style weapons, while 64% favor banning high-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.
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