Trump and McConnell have been saying that the appetite is not there for action on assault weapon, but a new poll reveals that 70% of Americans and 54% of Republicans want assault weapons banned.
According to the new Politico/Morning Consult Poll:
– Seven in 10 voters, including 54 percent of Republicans, said they support a ban on assault-style weapons – and even greater shares backed other provisions such as banning the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines, requiring a person to be 21 or older in order to purchase a gun and imposing a 3-day waiting period to take a gun home.
– Support among Republicans for a series of gun measures was largely driven by women. On the question of assault-style weapons, 64 percent of women in the party support a ban, while men were divided.
– The biggest share of Republicans (29 percent) said better mental health screening and support would be the best tool to prevent the attacks, breaking with the 62 percent of Democrats and 37 percent of voters overall who identified stronger gun control laws as the strongest prescription for the country.
= Fourteen percent of Republicans said stricter gun laws were the most effective tool to prevent mass shootings, similar to the 17 percent who said the best solution was allowing more private citizens to carry guns and less than the 21 percent who opted for putting more emphasis on God and morality in society.
Here is the transcript of Trump being asked about banning assault rifles today:
Q What about assault rifles? A lot of people would like to see them banned. What is your position?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I can tell you that there is no political appetite for that at this moment. If you look at the — you could speak, you could do your own polling. And there’s no political appetite, probably, from the standpoint of legislature.
But I will certainly bring that up. I’ll bring that up as one of the points. There’s a great appetite — and I mean a very strong appetite — for background checks. And I think we can bring up background checks like we’ve never had before. I think both Republican and Democrat are getting close to a bill on — they’re doing something on background checks.
The vast majority of Americans want enhanced background checks and an assault weapons ban. Republicans are running excuses, and they insist on being more beholden to the NRA than the American people, voters will vote them out of office to make the bloodshed stop.
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Mr. Easley is the founder/managing editor, who is White House Press Pool, and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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