Interesting results from Gallup this week:

The gap between the proportion of Americans advocating stricter gun laws and those in favor of maintaining or weakening existing gun laws — once nearly 60 points in favor of stronger gun control, and registering 14 points a year ago — is just four points in Gallup’s latest poll.

In 1990, the margin was 78 percent wanting more strict laws, 19 percent less strict or keep the same.

Rudy Giuliani has been jabbed for mentioning that 9/11 allegedly changed his views on gun control in the NRA speech. But if Giuliani’s being honest about his views, he has company:

In numerous measures of this question between 1990 and 2000, no fewer than 60% of Americans favored the “more strict” option, producing a consistently sizeable gap in favor of the more gun-control oriented position.
There was a significant change in October 2001, one month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In that survey, the percentage favoring stricter gun laws fell to 53%, narrowing the gap between this view and those favoring the status quo or weaker laws to only 7 points.

I think Giuliani would be wise if he said that like many Americans, he grew increasingly skeptical of the effectiveness of gun control in reducing crime in recent years.