Quinnipiac reports:
In today’s poll, 50 percent of registered voters support a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons, while 45 percent oppose it. This is the lowest level of support among registered voters for a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons since February 2013 when the question was first asked by the Quinnipiac University Poll.
The highest? Just after the massacre at Parkland in 2018:
The highest level of support among registered voters for a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons was in a Quinnipiac poll on February 20, 2018 when 67 percent supported a ban and 29 percent opposed.
Some people will ignore this caveat and say “aha — a majority!” But this would be to miss the point. Once the details are debated, and voters understand what they’re actually talking about, the popularity of gun-control proposals always crash. If 50 percent is the high point, it’s destined to drop to 30 percent or so once the argument starts in earnest.
As the Times‘s Nate Cohn observed recently, the difference between what voters say they would support and what they actually support is profound:
When voters in four Democratic-leaning states got the opportunity to enact expanded gun or ammunition background checks into law, the overwhelming support suggested by national surveys was nowhere to be found. Instead, the initiative and referendum results in Maine, Washington, Nevada and California were nearly identical to those of the 2016 presidential election, all the way down to the result of individual counties. (California’s referendum was over ammunition background checks.)
Cohn’s conclusion:
But the poor results for background checks suggest that public opinion may not be the unequivocal ally of gun control that the polling makes it seem.
A ban on the most commonly owned rifle in America is a much harder sell than extending background checks to private, intrastate transfers. Indeed, if Q’s number is to be believed, it’s a non-starter.
Good.