With total gun-related deaths reaching new highs in recent years, growing shares of Americans view both gun violence and violent crime as very big national problems.

Looking ahead, twice as many Americans expect the level of gun violence to increase rather than stay about the same over the next five years (62% vs. 31%). Just 7% say it will decrease.

The question of whether gun ownership does more to increase or decrease safety evenly divides Americans: 49% say it increases safety by allowing law-abiding citizens to protect themselves; an identical share says it reduces safety by giving too many people access to firearms and increasing misuse.

The new survey, conducted June 5-11, 2023, among 5,115 members of Pew Research Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel, also finds:

• A majority of Americans (58%) say gun laws in the country should be stricter; 26% say they are about right, while just 15% say they should be less strict. Support for stricter gun laws has ticked up since 2021 and is at about the same level as in 2019.
• Large majorities favor preventing mentally ill people from buying guns (88%) and increasing the minimum age for buying guns to 21 years old (79%).
• Other gun policy proposals, including banning high-capacity magazines (66%) and banning assault-style weapons (64%), continue to draw majority support.

Large divides by party, community type in views of impact of gun ownership on safety

Gun policy continues to be one of the most polarizing issues in American politics. Republicans and Democrats are sharply divided over the impact of gun ownership on public safety: 79% of Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party say that gun ownership increases safety, while a nearly identical share of Democrats and Democratic leaners (78%) say it decreases safety.

Views of gun ownership are also closely tied to where one lives, with those who say they live in rural areas about twice as likely as those who live in urban areas to say that gun ownership increases safety (65% vs. 34%). And those who personally own guns are nearly twice as likely as non-owners to say this (71% vs. 37%).

Overall, 32% of Americans report owning a gun.

Gun violence and violent crime increasingly viewed as major problems

While there are wide partisan gaps in views of the impact of gun ownership and in views of many gun policies, Republicans and Democrats also differ over whether gun violence is a major problem for the country. About twice as many Democrats as Republicans say it is “a very big” national problem (81% vs. 38%).

Over the past year, however, there have been 11 percentage point increases in the shares of both parties saying it is a very big problem.

Views of whether violent crime is a major problem have tended to be less partisan. And growing shares in both parties also view crime as a very big problem.

Since last year, the share of Republicans who say violent crime is a major problem has slightly increased from 60% to 64%. There has been a comparable shift among Democrats, from 47% to 52%.

Both violent crime and gun violence rank high on the public’s list of top national problems. Refer to our recent report for more.

CORRECTION (June 28, 2023): In the chart “Growing shares of Americans say gun violence, violent crime are ‘very big’ national problems,” a previous version of the chart omitted a July 2021 data point of the shares saying violent crime was a very big problem for the country. The chart has now been updated to include the following: 61% of Americans (including 67% of Republicans and 55% of Democrats) said violent crime was a very big problem for the country in July 2021.

The following sentence was also updated to reflect the above additions: “Since last year, the share of Republicans who say violent crime is a major problem has slightly increased from 60% to 64%. There has been a comparable shift among Democrats, from 47% to 52%.”

Views of gun policies

There continues to be wide public support for various specific gun policy proposals. For example, 88% of Americans favor preventing people with mental illnesses from purchasing guns, including 72% who strongly favor this.

This is the only policy proposal among eight asked about in the survey which draws overwhelming bipartisan support (89% of Democrats, 88% of Republicans).

While opinions about most gun policies have not changed much in recent years, an increasing share of the public favors allowing teachers and school officials to arm themselves.

Half of adults now favor allowing teachers and other school officials to carry guns in K-12 schools, up from 43% two years ago.

U.S. adults are evenly divided over whether gun ownership does more to increase safety by allowing law-abiding citizens to protect themselves, or more to reduce safety by giving too many people access to firearms and increasing misuse (49% each).

This question highlights the sharp contrasts between partisans over the role of guns in society: 79% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say that gun ownership does more to increase safety, while a nearly identical share of Democrats and Democratic leaners (78%) say that it does more to decrease safety.

Gun owners and non-owners also are divided. Among the 32% of adults who say they personally own a gun, 71% say that gun ownership increases safety. Among the 65% of adults who do not own a gun, just 37% say the same. A majority of non-owners (61%) say that gun ownership does more to decrease safety.

There are also large divisions among Americans based on community type.

Among those who say they live in urban areas, 64% say gun ownership makes people less safe, while 34% say it does more to increase safety. Among those who live in rural areas, these shares are roughly reversed: 65% say gun ownership does more to increase safety, compared with 33% who say it does more to decrease safety.

Those who report living in suburban areas are about as likely to say that gun ownership increases safety (51%) as to say it decreases safety (47%).

(About half of Americans – 49% – say they live in suburban areas, while roughly a quarter report living in either rural (26%) or urban areas (24%). For more on self-reported community type, read our publication, “Evaluating what makes a U.S. community urban, suburban or rural.”)

Majority of Americans say gun laws should be stricter

Views on whether gun laws in the United States should be stricter, less strict, or are about right have fluctuated modestly in recent years. Currently 58% say gun laws should be stricter, while 26% say laws are about right and 15% say they should be less strict.

Two years ago, 53% favored stricter gun laws. In 2019, 60% said laws should be stricter.

Demographic differences in views of gun policy have been stable in recent years. A majority of women (64%) say that gun laws should be stricter than they are today, compared with 51% of men.

Roughly three-quarters of Black (77%) and Asian adults (74%) say this, compared with 68% of Hispanic adults and 51% of White adults.

Younger adults are somewhat more likely to support stricter gun laws than older adults, though majorities across age groups favor stricter laws.

There also are educational divides on this issue: 72% of adults with a postgraduate education say that gun laws should be stricter, compared with 52% of adults with a high school degree or less formal education.

As in recent years, Republicans who identify as moderate or liberal are more likely to favor stricter gun laws than those who describe themselves as conservatives.

Roughly four-in-ten moderate or liberal Republicans (42%) say that laws should be stricter, while 40% say current laws are about right and 17% say they should be less strict. Among conservative Republicans, just 19% say laws should be stricter, while 33% say they should be less strict and 48% say current laws are about right.

Large majorities of Democrats across ideological groups say that gun laws should be stricter than they are today: 92% of liberal Democrats and 81% of conservative or moderate Democrats say this.

Americans who live in urban communities are substantially more likely than those who live in rural communities to favor stricter gun laws.

People who don’t own guns are about twice as likely as gun owners to say that gun laws should be stricter: 71% of non-owners say this, compared with 35% of gun owners. By contrast, gun owners are roughly twice as likely as non-owners to say that current laws are about right (39% vs. 20%) and about three times as likely to say that gun laws should be less strict (26% vs. 8%).

Within each party, there are divisions in the opinions of those who own guns and those who do not. Roughly four-in-ten Republicans who don’t own guns (41%) say that gun laws should be stricter, compared with just 15% of Republican gun owners. Republican gun owners are more likely than non-owners to say that current laws are about right (49% vs. 41%) or that they should be less strict (35% vs. 17%).

While large majorities of Democratic gun owners (73%) say that laws should be stricter, Democrats who don’t own guns overwhelmingly hold this view (89%).

Several policy proposals that would further restrict access to guns or ammunition continue to receive support from majorities of Americans. Smaller shares of Americans support several more permissive policy proposals.

Roughly nine-in-ten U.S. adults (88%) favor preventing people with mental illness from purchasing guns, while 79% favor increasing the minimum age for buying guns to 21 years old.

Sizable majorities also support banning high-capacity ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds (66%) and banning assault-style weapons (64%).

Four policy proposals that would ease restrictions on guns, including allowing people to carry concealed guns without a permit, draw less support from the public.

Half of Americans favor allowing teachers and school officials to carry guns in K-12 schools, while 44% say people should be able to carry concealed guns in more places. Fewer than a third of Americans favor shortening waiting periods for gun purchases (30%) or allowing concealed carry without a permit (24%).

Views by party

Overwhelming majorities of both Democrats (89%) and Republicans (88%) favor preventing people with mental illnesses from purchasing guns. Majorities in both parties support increasing the minimum age for buying guns to 21 years old, though support for this policy is more widespread among Democrats (90%) than Republicans (69%).

There are wider partisan differences on the other policy proposals in the survey. While large majorities of Democrats favor banning high-capacity ammunition magazines (85%) and banning assault-style weapons (85%), fewer than half of Republicans support either of these two proposals (45% and 42%, respectively).

By contrast, while seven-in-ten or more Republicans favor allowing teachers and school officials to carry guns in K-12 schools (74%) or allowing people to carry concealed guns in more places (71%), fewer than three-in-ten Democrats support these policies. Republicans are also more likely than Democrats to favor shortening waiting periods for people who want to buy guns legally (45% vs. 16%) and allowing people to carry concealed guns without a permit (40% vs. 9%), though both of these proposals have more opposition than support among those in both parties.

Views of gun policies among gun owners, non-owners

While nearly nine-in-ten gun owners (87%) and non-owners (89%) both favor preventing people with mental illnesses from purchasing guns, there are wider gaps between gun owners and non-owners on other policy proposals.

Non-owners are at least 30 percentage points more likely than gun owners to favor banning high-capacity ammunition magazines (78% vs. 45%) or banning assault-style weapons (77% vs. 43%). They are also 18 points more likely to favor increasing the minimum age for buying guns to 21 years old, though majorities in both groups favor this (86% vs. 68%).

Gun owners are 37 points more likely than non-owners to favor allowing people to carry concealed guns in more places (68% vs. 31%), and 30 points more likely to favor allowing teachers and school officials to carry guns in K-12 schools (69% vs. 39%).

Few non-owners favor shortened waiting periods (22%) or allowing concealed carry without a permit (14%). Gun owners are more supportive of these policies, with 44% favoring shorter waiting periods for people who want to buy guns legally and 41% supporting allowing people to carry concealed guns without a permit. Still, majorities of gun owners oppose these policy proposals.

Gun owners’, non-owners’ views by political party

Across seven of the eight policy proposals asked about in the survey, gun owners within each political party are more likely than non-owners of the same party to favor policies that expand access to guns and ammunition.

Non-owners are more likely to favor policies that are more restrictive – though differences are generally larger among Republicans and Republican leaners than among Democrats and Democratic leaners.

At the same time, the wide partisan differences on these questions are seen among both gun owners and non-owners (Two-in-ten Democrats and 45% of Republicans say they personally own a gun).

For example, nearly nine-in-ten Democrats who do not own a gun favor banning high-capacity magazines (89%), a view held by a smaller – though still wide – majority of Democrats who report owning a gun (73%). Meanwhile, a narrower majority of Republicans who do not own a gun (60%) favor this policy, compared with roughly half as many Republican gun owners (31%).

A large majority of Republicans who own guns (85%) favor allowing teachers to carry guns in K-12 schools, as do 64% of Republicans who do not own a gun. Among Democrats, 34% of gun owners favor this, as do 25% of non-owners.

This report is a collaborative effort based on the input and analysis of the following individuals:

Research team

Carroll Doherty, Director, Political Research
Jocelyn Kiley, Associate Director, Political Research
Baxter Oliphant, Senior Researcher
Gabe Borelli, Research Associate
Andrew Daniller, Research Associate
Hannah Hartig, Research Associate
Amina Dunn, Research Analyst
Ted Van Green, Research Analyst
Andy Cerda, Research Assistant
Katy Lin, Research Intern

Communications and editorial

Nida Asheer, Communications Manager
Talia Price, Communications Associate
Rebecca Leppert, Editorial Assistant

Graphic design and web publishing

Alissa Scheller, Information Graphics Designer
Reem Nadeem, Associate Digital Producer

Methodology

Andrew Mercer, Senior Research Methodologist
Dorene Asare-Marfo, Panel Manager
Dana Popky, Associate Panel Manager
Arnold Lau, Research Methodologist

The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Overview

The American Trends Panel (ATP), created by Pew Research Center, is a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. Panelists participate via self-administered web surveys. Panelists who do not have internet access at home are provided with a tablet and wireless internet connection. Interviews are conducted in both English and Spanish. The panel is being managed by Ipsos.

Data in this report is drawn from ATP Wave 129, conducted from June 5 to June 11, 2023, and includes an oversample of Hispanic men, non-Hispanic Black men, and non-Hispanic Asian adults in order to provide more precise estimates of the opinions and experiences of these smaller demographic subgroups. These oversampled groups are weighted back to reflect their correct proportions in the population. A total of 5,115 panelists responded out of 5,865 who were sampled, for a response rate of 87%. The cumulative response rate accounting for nonresponse to the recruitment surveys and attrition is 3%. The break-off rate among panelists who logged on to the survey and completed at least one item is 1%. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 5,115 respondents is plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.

Panel recruitment

The ATP was created in 2014, with the first cohort of panelists invited to join the panel at the end of a large, national, landline and cellphone random-digit-dial survey that was conducted in both English and Spanish. Two additional recruitments were conducted using the same method in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Across these three surveys, a total of 19,718 adults were invited to join the ATP, of whom 9,942 (50%) agreed to participate.

In August 2018, the ATP switched from telephone to address-based recruitment. Invitations were sent to a stratified, random sample of households selected from the U.S. Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File. Sampled households receive mailings asking a randomly selected adult to complete a survey online. A question at the end of the survey asks if the respondent is willing to join the ATP. In 2020 and 2021 another stage was added to the recruitment. Households that did not respond to the online survey were sent a paper version of the questionnaire, $5 and a postage-paid return envelope. A subset of the adults who returned the paper version of the survey were invited to join the ATP. This subset of adults received a follow-up mailing with a $10 pre-incentive and invitation to join the ATP.

Across the five address-based recruitments, a total of 23,176 adults were invited to join the ATP, of whom 20,341 agreed to join the panel and completed an initial profile survey. In each household, one adult was selected and asked to go online to complete a survey, at the end of which they were invited to join the panel. Of the 30,283 individuals who have ever joined the ATP, 12,402   remained active panelists and continued to receive survey invitations at the time this survey was conducted.

The U.S. Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File has been estimated to cover as much as 98% of the population, although some studies suggest that the coverage could be in the low 90% range.¹ The American Trends Panel never uses breakout routers or chains that direct respondents to additional surveys.

Sample design

The overall target population for this survey was non-institutionalized persons ages 18 and older living in the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii. It featured a stratified random sample from the ATP in which Hispanic men, non-Hispanic Black men, and non-Hispanic Asian adults were selected with certainty. The remaining panelists were sampled at rates designed to ensure that the share of respondents in each stratum is proportional to its share of the U.S. adult population to the greatest extent possible. Respondent weights are adjusted to account for differential probabilities of selection as described in the Weighting section below.

Questionnaire development and testing

The questionnaire was developed by Pew Research Center in consultation with Ipsos. The web program was rigorously tested on both PC and mobile devices by the Ipsos project management team and Pew Research Center researchers. The Ipsos project management team also populated test data that was analyzed in SPSS to ensure the logic and randomizations were working as intended before launching the survey.

Incentives

All respondents were offered a post-paid incentive for their participation. Respondents could choose to receive the post-paid incentive in the form of a check or a gift code to Amazon.com or could choose to decline the incentive. Incentive amounts ranged from $5 to $20 depending on whether the respondent belongs to a part of the population that is harder or easier to reach. Differential incentive amounts were designed to increase panel survey participation among groups that traditionally have low survey response propensities.

Data collection protocol

The data collection field period for this survey was June 5 to June 11, 2023. Postcard notifications were mailed to all ATP panelists with a known residential address on June 5. 

Invitations were sent out in two separate launches: soft launch and full launch. Sixty panelists were included in the soft launch, which began with an initial invitation sent on June 5. The ATP panelists chosen for the initial soft launch were known responders who had completed previous ATP surveys within one day of receiving their invitation. All remaining English- and Spanish-speaking sampled panelists were included in the full launch and were sent an invitation on June 6.

All panelists with an email address received an email invitation and up to two email reminders if they did not respond to the survey. All ATP panelists who consented to SMS messages received an SMS invitation and up to two SMS reminders.

Data quality checks

To ensure high-quality data, the Center’s researchers performed data quality checks to identify any respondents showing clear patterns of satisficing. This includes checking for very high rates of leaving questions blank, as well as always selecting the first or last answer presented. As a result of this checking, six ATP respondents were removed from the survey dataset prior to weighting and analysis.

Weighting

The ATP data is weighted in a multistep process that accounts for multiple stages of sampling and nonresponse that occur at different points in the survey process. First, each panelist begins with a base weight that reflects their probability of selection for their initial recruitment survey. These weights are then rescaled and adjusted to account for changes in the design of ATP recruitment surveys from year to year. Finally, the weights are calibrated to align with the population benchmarks in the accompanying table to correct for nonresponse to recruitment surveys and panel attrition. If only a subsample of panelists was invited to participate in the wave, this weight is adjusted to account for any differential probabilities of selection.

Among the panelists who completed the survey, this weight is then calibrated again to align with the population benchmarks identified in the accompanying table and trimmed at the 1st and 99th percentiles to reduce the loss in precision stemming from variance in the weights. Sampling errors and tests of statistical significance take into account the effect of weighting.

The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for different groups in the survey.

Sample sizes and sampling errors for other subgroups are available upon request. In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

Dispositions and response rates

© Pew Research Center, 2023