{"id":51068,"date":"2011-01-19T12:12:23","date_gmt":"2011-01-19T17:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2011\/01\/19\/no-shift-toward-gun-control-after-tucson-shootings-2\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:10:56","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:10:56","slug":"no-shift-toward-gun-control-after-tucson-shootings-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/01\/19\/no-shift-toward-gun-control-after-tucson-shootings-2\/","title":{"rendered":"No Shift Toward Gun Control After Tucson Shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview<\/h2>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

In the wake of the Tucson shootings, there is no significant change in public views on the issue of gun control and gun rights. Currently, 49% of Americans say it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns, while 46% say it is more important to control gun ownership. In September 2010, 50% prioritized gun control, 46% gun rights. In this regard, there is no sign that the longer trend toward an emphasis on gun owners\u2019 rights has abated.<\/p>\n\n

The issue remains a deeply divisive one along party lines \u2013 by a 72% to 22% margin Republicans say protecting gun rights is more important, while by a 70% to 26% margin Democrats prioritize gun control. Independents are more divided, with 52% <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

favoring gun rights and 44% gun control. For a comprehensive look at opinions on the gun issue, see \u201cViews of Gun Control \u2013 A Detailed Demographic Breakdown<\/a>,\u201d Jan. 13.<\/p>\n\n

Perhaps one reason that attitudes remained stable was how few saw the events in Tucson as a sign of broader social problems. Most (58%) Americans say things like this are just the isolated acts of troubled individuals. Only about half as many (31%) saw the shooting in Tucson as a reflection of broader problems in American society. By comparison, Americans were more likely to see broader problems behind the Virginia Tech shootings nearly four years ago \u2013 at that <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

time, 46% thought the tragic events reflected broader societal problems.<\/p>\n\n

Those who see broader social problems behind the shooting offer a variety of explanations. When asked to describe, in their own words, what the tragedy reflects in society, 27% point to problems in the social climate, such as the breakdown of society, the way children are raised, a lack of civility, respect, discipline and a general move away from religion, God and morality. But nearly as many (21%) believe that the shooting reflected problems in the political and media environment, such as political divisiveness and the impression that so many people are deeply unhappy with government these days.<\/p>\n\n

Another 14% of those who see the Tucson shooting as reflective of broader social problems specifically mentioned problems in the mental health system, and 13% referred to weak gun laws that make it too easy for people to get guns. Slightly fewer (9%) described economic stress and unemployment as factors behind the shooting.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most Point to Troubled Individuals, Not Broader Societal Problems<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","sub_headline":"Most Point to Troubled Individuals, Not Broader Societal Problems","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","prc_watchers":[],"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[{"key":"_migrate_0","postId":51084}],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[1418],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-51068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","datasets-january-13-16-2011-weekly-survey","formats-report","research-teams-politics"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":372,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/01\/19\/no-shift-toward-gun-control-after-tucson-shootings-2\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":51068,"title":"No Shift Toward Gun Control After Tucson Shootings","slug":"no-shift-toward-gun-control-after-tucson-shootings-2","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/01\/19\/no-shift-toward-gun-control-after-tucson-shootings-2\/","is_active":true},{"id":51084,"title":"About the Survey","slug":"about-the-survey-315","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/01\/19\/about-the-survey-315\/","is_active":false}],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":{"id":51068,"title":"No Shift Toward Gun Control After Tucson Shootings","slug":"no-shift-toward-gun-control-after-tucson-shootings-2","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/01\/19\/no-shift-toward-gun-control-after-tucson-shootings-2\/","is_active":true,"page_num":1},"next_post":{"id":51084,"title":"About the Survey","slug":"about-the-survey-315","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/01\/19\/about-the-survey-315\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[{"id":51068,"title":"No Shift Toward Gun Control After Tucson Shootings","slug":"no-shift-toward-gun-control-after-tucson-shootings-2","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/01\/19\/no-shift-toward-gun-control-after-tucson-shootings-2\/","is_active":true,"page_num":1},{"id":51084,"title":"About the Survey","slug":"about-the-survey-315","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/01\/19\/about-the-survey-315\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2}]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"No Shift Toward Gun Control After Tucson Shootings","parent_id":51068},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[{"key":"_migrate_0","postId":51084}],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"No Shift Toward Gun Control After Tucson Shootings","description":"Most Point to Troubled Individuals, Not Broader Societal Problems","og_title":"No Shift Toward Gun Control After Tucson Shootings","og_description":"Most Point to Troubled Individuals, Not Broader Societal Problems","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"incomplete","message":"3 images are missing alt text.","data":{"count":3}},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 7 paragraphs.","data":{"count":7}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 1 internal link.","data":{"count":1}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125980,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51068\/revisions\/125980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=51068"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=51068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}