In the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., President Barack Obama, various lawmakers and the National Rifle Association have been the driving forces on an increasingly loud public debate on what measures should be taken to prevent against future mass shootings.
Obama last week announced a gun violence task force and outlined proposals he supports on new gun control legislation: a renewed ban on assault-style weapons, limits on high-capacity magazines, and an end to the so-called "gun show loophole" on background checks.
The NRA has pushed back on the call for new gun legislation, calling for armed officers in schools and more of a focus on mental health. Well-known Republican pollster Frank Lutz slammed the NRA in response, calling the organization "out of touch" with its proposals.
Are they out of touch? Like everything else, Americans are divided along party, ideological, gender and racial and socioeconomic lines on the subject of gun control, according to years of polling on the subject. But some of America's agreements might surprise you.
The 1999 Columbine, Colo., massacre briefly pushed support toward "controlling gun ownership" up 8 points to 65 percent of Americans.
In the last 12 years, though, there has been a rapid rise in support for gun rights. After the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., more people support protecting rights of gun ownership than controlling it.
But after Newtown, 49 percent now think it's more important to control gun ownership, compared with 42 percent that think it's more important to protect gun rights.
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