More Americans see gun violence as major problem

A greater share of Americans say gun violence is a major problem compared to five years ago, with the sentiment increasing across the political spectrum, according to a poll. 

A poll from Pew Research Center released Wednesday found that 60 percent of American respondents said gun violence is a “very big problem,” while 23 percent said it is a “moderately big problem.” More than 60 percent also said they expect the level of gun violence to get worse in the next five years, while about 30 percent said it will stay the same, and only 7 percent said it will drop. 

Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to consider gun violence a “very big” problem, with 81 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of Republicans surveyed in the poll saying so. But the share of respondents who expressed that sentiment is up 9 percentage points for each group since 2018. 

The overall percentage of Americans surveyed who said they consider gun violence a major problem rose 7 points from 53 percent in 2018. 

Pollsters also found a slight increase in the percentage of Americans who said they support stricter gun laws, which rose 5 points from 2021 to 58 percent now. That figure is about in line with the 60 percent who said so in 2019. 

Only 15 percent said gun laws should be less strict — about the same as the poll has found in recent years. 

But respondents were evenly divided on whether increased gun ownership is effective at reducing gun violence. About half said it reduces safety by giving too many people access to firearms and increasing misuse, and the same amount said it does more to increase safety by allowing law-abiding people to defend themselves. 

Almost 80 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said gun ownership improves safety, and almost 80 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said it worsens safety. 

Those who live in rural areas are also about twice as likely to say it improves safety as those in urban areas, as are gun owners compared to non-gun owners. 

Still, an overwhelming majority of respondents said they support certain gun measures like preventing those who are experiencing mental illness from purchasing a firearm and increasing the minimum age to buy a firearm to 21 years old. Two-thirds said they support banning high-capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds and banning assault-style weapons. 

The poll was conducted among 5,115 U.S. adults from June 5-11. The margin of error was 1.7 percentage points.