P
Patriot Games
Guest
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/443/the-nras-image-imp
The NRA's Image Improves as Support for Gun Control Slips
by Shawn Neidorf, Research Associate, Pew Center for the People & the Press
April 4, 2007
Each year since its occurrence in 1999, the April 20 anniversary of the
Columbine High School tragedy renews debate about the desirability of
stricter controls on firearms. Recent surveys, however, find Americans less
disposed to gun control than they were in the years surrounding the
shootings.
For example, Americans have a better opinion of the National Rifle
Association these days than they did in the mid 1990's. Over this same
period, public calls for stricter gun-control laws have also quieted
somewhat. A recent Pew nationwide survey found a 52%-to-32% majority of
respondents holding a favorable opinion of the NRA, which will hold its
massive annual convention on April 13-15 this year in St. Louis. While this
is the first time since 1994 that the favorability rating of the group has
crossed the 50% mark, positive views of the NRA have been inching upward in
Pew polls in recent years.
Opinions of the NRA have improved among most demographic and political
groups, but the anti-gun control advocacy organization has made its greatest
gains among its traditional constituencies - men, whites and Republicans.
Favorable views of the NRA among men, for example, jumped 11 percentage
points, from 51% in 1995 to 62% in 2007. By contrast, favorable views among
women stand at 42%, little changed from the 1995 level. And, while
favorability rose 8 points among whites between 1995 and 2007, favorable
views among blacks were essentially unchanged.
Republicans, who held the most favorable view of the NRA in 1995, not only
continue to hold the most favorable view in 2007 (72% favorable), but also
registered the largest gain in the number holding favorable views of the
group -- a 20-percentage point increase. Among Democrats, the increase in
positive opinions was very modest. As a result, the gap between the
attitudes of Republicans and Democrats toward the NRA grew much wider. In
1995, the gap measured 16-percentage points; by 2007 it had doubled to 32
points.
The NRA remains most popular in the South and the Midwest. The Midwest also
experienced the largest increase in favorable views of the group, but
attitudes in the West also became substantially more pro-NRA.
As attitudes toward the NRA have warmed, attitudes toward more restrictive
gun control have cooled. In September 1990, 78% of respondents in a national
survey told Gallup they felt that laws governing the sale of firearms should
be stricter. The figure declined throughout the 1990s and reached its lowest
point (51%) in October 2002. Since then support for stricter controls on
guns has hovered in the mid-50s, reaching a peak of 60% in 2004.
Most recently, in October 2006, 56% of people told Gallup they favored
stricter gun-sales laws. However, when given the choice in that poll between
enforcing current gun laws more strictly or doing that plus passing new gun
laws, most people (53%) preferred only that current laws be enforced more
strictly.
At the same time, attitudes toward guns themselves are shifting. When asked
whether a gun in the house makes the house safer or more dangerous, 47% said
safer in October 2006 - up from 35% in August 2000 and 42% in October 2004.
The NRA's Image Improves as Support for Gun Control Slips
by Shawn Neidorf, Research Associate, Pew Center for the People & the Press
April 4, 2007
Each year since its occurrence in 1999, the April 20 anniversary of the
Columbine High School tragedy renews debate about the desirability of
stricter controls on firearms. Recent surveys, however, find Americans less
disposed to gun control than they were in the years surrounding the
shootings.
For example, Americans have a better opinion of the National Rifle
Association these days than they did in the mid 1990's. Over this same
period, public calls for stricter gun-control laws have also quieted
somewhat. A recent Pew nationwide survey found a 52%-to-32% majority of
respondents holding a favorable opinion of the NRA, which will hold its
massive annual convention on April 13-15 this year in St. Louis. While this
is the first time since 1994 that the favorability rating of the group has
crossed the 50% mark, positive views of the NRA have been inching upward in
Pew polls in recent years.
Opinions of the NRA have improved among most demographic and political
groups, but the anti-gun control advocacy organization has made its greatest
gains among its traditional constituencies - men, whites and Republicans.
Favorable views of the NRA among men, for example, jumped 11 percentage
points, from 51% in 1995 to 62% in 2007. By contrast, favorable views among
women stand at 42%, little changed from the 1995 level. And, while
favorability rose 8 points among whites between 1995 and 2007, favorable
views among blacks were essentially unchanged.
Republicans, who held the most favorable view of the NRA in 1995, not only
continue to hold the most favorable view in 2007 (72% favorable), but also
registered the largest gain in the number holding favorable views of the
group -- a 20-percentage point increase. Among Democrats, the increase in
positive opinions was very modest. As a result, the gap between the
attitudes of Republicans and Democrats toward the NRA grew much wider. In
1995, the gap measured 16-percentage points; by 2007 it had doubled to 32
points.
The NRA remains most popular in the South and the Midwest. The Midwest also
experienced the largest increase in favorable views of the group, but
attitudes in the West also became substantially more pro-NRA.
As attitudes toward the NRA have warmed, attitudes toward more restrictive
gun control have cooled. In September 1990, 78% of respondents in a national
survey told Gallup they felt that laws governing the sale of firearms should
be stricter. The figure declined throughout the 1990s and reached its lowest
point (51%) in October 2002. Since then support for stricter controls on
guns has hovered in the mid-50s, reaching a peak of 60% in 2004.
Most recently, in October 2006, 56% of people told Gallup they favored
stricter gun-sales laws. However, when given the choice in that poll between
enforcing current gun laws more strictly or doing that plus passing new gun
laws, most people (53%) preferred only that current laws be enforced more
strictly.
At the same time, attitudes toward guns themselves are shifting. When asked
whether a gun in the house makes the house safer or more dangerous, 47% said
safer in October 2006 - up from 35% in August 2000 and 42% in October 2004.
