Poll: A Year After Parkland, Urgency For New Gun Restrictions Declines

One year after the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the urgency for new gun restrictions has declined, but roughly half the country is concerned a mass shooting could happen at a school in their community, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll[1] finds. In the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting that killed 17 people on Valentine's Day, 71 percent of Americans said laws covering the sale of firearms should be stricter. Now, it's 51 percent. When it comes to whether stricter gun legislation should be an immediate priority for Congress, 42 percent say it should be. In April 2018, it was 10 points higher. Still, a solid majority — 59 percent — say their first reaction when hearing about mass shootings is that the country needs stricter gun laws. Only a quarter say their first thought is that more people need to carry a gun. And 53 percent of Americans are concerned that a mass shooting could happen at a school in their community. By a 63-to-43 percent margin, women are far more concerned than men about that possibility. "Not surprisingly, the results show that the outcry against gun violence has lessened from what it was immediately following the shooting at Parkland," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. "Yet, there is a strong consensus that gun violence is a serious problem and action needs to be taken." There are also big partisan, racial and age divides. Republicans are less likely than Democrats to support gun restrictions, support for which has decreased over the past three decades; nonwhites are more likely to be affected by gun violence and more likely to want gun restrictions to be an immediate priority for Congress; and two-thirds of people 18 to 29 would rather

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