WASHINGTON TIMES.COM November 16, 2020 – Many people can’t wait for 2020 to end, billing it as a lousy year all around for multiple reasons. In the greater picture, however, the combination of troubling events such as social unrest and the coronavirus pandemic fostered record-breaking gun sales in the U.S., according to several industry sources. It also has influenced public opinion on gun control.

“In the absence of a high-profile mass shooting in the U.S. in 2020 and amid the coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest related to racial justice issues and the contentious presidential election campaign, Americans are less likely than they have been since 2016 to call for increased gun control,” reports a new Gallup poll.

The poll found that 57% of U.S. adults now favor stricter laws on gun sales, down 7 percentage points since last year. “Americans’ support for a ban on the possession of handguns, at 25%, is near the lowest on record in Gallup’s 40-year trend.

The latest reading, which is down 18 points from its 1991 high, is a slight decline from last year’s 29%. Currently, 74% of U.S. adults say such a ban should not be put in place,” the pollster says. The partisan difference in opinion, however, has never been larger.

The current 22% of Republicans favoring stricter laws for gun sales is the lowest for the group over the past 20 years and represents a 14-percentage point drop since 2019.

Meanwhile, the percentages of Democrats and independents calling for more gun control are near the highest recorded by Gallup since 2000. The 63-percentage point gap between Republicans and Democrats is the highest on record over the past two decades,” Gallup notes.  [full article]