Poll: Year Later, Few Americans Think Stricter Gun Control is Solution

In yet another poll, Americans reject stricter gun control as a solution to random rampage massacres like Newtown and Aurora.

A year after the Sandy Hook massacre, just 16% of Americans told the Reason-Rupe Poll  that they believe stricter gun control laws would have been most effective in preventing the tragedy. This poll suggests that Americans believe other changes and reforms that would be more likely to prevent such carnage in the future.

For example, when asked to select the most important factor that may have prevented the Newtown shooting, nearly a third of respondents, 27%, that better mental health treatment is the most important factor in preventing the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

Better parenting was chosen as the next most critical factor by 22%, and 20% say having armed school officials or armed guards on site would have been the most likely way to prevent the tragedy.

The fourth most preferred approach was stricter gun control laws, selected by 16% of respondents.

Reducing the violence in media and video games was cited by 8% of Americans as the best way to prevent the school shooting.

As one might expect, there is a political/ideological divide in the priorities as shown in the chart. The widest disparities were, unsurprisingly, on Stricter Gun Control. A bit more surprising was the very tight response rate by political leaning to the need for better parenting.