Majority of Americans Want Enforcement of Existing Gun Laws, Not New Laws, Survey Finds

A new survey shows that US voters prefer enforcement of existing gun laws to help prevent gun violence, not passing new laws.

Customers shop for firearms in a gun store in Austin, Texas, on Aug. 25, 2023. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

In the aftermath of the mass shooting in Maine, a new survey revealed that the majority of America’s voters believe enforcing existing gun laws would do more to help prevent gun violence than passing new laws.

While previous gun-control surveys taken in the aftermath of mass shootings show a rise in the number of Americans who want more gun control laws, a new Rasmussen survey taken in the days after the fatal shooting of at least 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, shows that nearly 60 percent of American voters say the enforcement of existing laws would do more to mitigate gun violence.

While 30 percent of those surveyed believe passing new laws would do more to curb gun violence, 57 percent said stricter enforcement of existing gun control laws would be more effective.

The survey also found that Republicans and independents overwhelmingly disagree with Democrats on gun control.

While 71 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of independents want stricter enforcement of existing gun laws, only 43 percent of Democrats concur, instead seeking new, stricter legislation.

In response to the survey’s results, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Chairman Alan Gottlieb reiterated the organization’s long-standing position that enforcing existing gun laws would negate the need for new laws, which would only impose additional restrictions on law-abiding citizens. Evidence that new laws do little to prevent gun violence is that another mass shooting inevitably takes place, primarily in gun-free zones.

Alan Gottlieb, Chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Courtesy of Alan Gottlieb

According to a 2020 study by John R. Lott Jr. of the Crime Prevention Research Center, over 98 percent of America’s mass shootings occur in gun-free zones.

On Jan. 21, 10 people were killed and 10 were wounded at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California. On March 27, three nine-year-old children were killed at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. On April 10, four people were killed and nine were injured at Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky.

In the aftermath, an April 27 Fox News Poll showed that 87 percent favored criminal background checks on all gun purchasers, 81 percent wanted stricter enforcement of existing gun laws, and 61 percent wanted a ban on assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons.

An Oct. 31 Gallup survey showed that 56 percent of American adults say gun laws should be stricter. While 31 percent said existing gun laws are sufficient, just 12 percent said they favored less strict gun laws.

These opinions, however, were gathered before the shooting in Maine.

Mr. Gottlieb told The Epoch Times, “The Rasmussen survey was done after the mass killing in Maine.”

“It really surprised me because there’s usually a bump where people demand gun initiatives after incidents like this,” Mr. Gottlieb said. “But this time, it didn’t happen. This time, it shows that the American people understand that new gun control laws don’t work, and they really just want the ones that are on the books to be enforced, which wasn’t what happened in Maine.”

Robert Card points a gun while entering a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, on Oct. 25, 2023. Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office via AP

As reported by The Epoch Times, Robert Card killed 18 people and wounded 13 others at two locations in Lewiston, Maine, on Oct. 25.

According to reports, he was a skilled Army marksman with a long history of mental illness. He was hearing voices and had thoughts of harming his fellow soldiers. In July, Army Reserve officials said he had been “behaving erratically,” so he was transported by police to Keller Army Community Hospital at the United States Military Academy, where he was admitted for several weeks of evaluation.

Maine law, 15 M.R.S.A. § 393, prohibits anyone who was committed involuntarily to a hospital “because the person was found to present a likelihood of serious harm” of purchasing, owning or possessing a firearm.

As Mr. Gottlieb noted, “he wasn’t supposed to have any firearms. But nobody did anything about it.”

“I think that message got through to the American people so 57 percent of them want stricter enforcement of existing laws and only 30 percent want new laws passed,” he said.

Mr. Gottlieb also believes that the massacre in Israel and the escalating violence against Jewish people in America played a part in hardening law-abiding Americans against the idea of new gun laws that would only leave them less able to defend themselves.

“People are seeing the need for firearms for self-protection, and the terrorist attack in Israel really pointed that out pretty heavily,” he explained. “Now, with the riots and growing antisemitism and with Jewish people being attacked here in this country, prolific numbers of Jewish people are going out and buying firearms and going to firearms training lessons in the last week or two. So yes, that played into it. It may have even negated the normally immediate effect of people wanting more gun control that a mass shooting has.”