Opposition to
gun control high in Tenn.; held steady after Giffords shooting
However, most opposed expansion of concealed-carry spaces
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — When Tennessee residents last were asked about
laws for firearm sales — in the spring of 2011 following the shooting of
Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords — 43 percent said the laws should be
kept as they are, according to statewide polling data from Middle Tennessee
State University.
The
MTSU Poll question of whether “… laws covering the sale of firearms should be
made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are …” also found that 41
percent said they should be more strict and only 12 percent said they should be
less strict (the remaining 4 percent said they didn’t know or refused to answer
the question).
Compared
to responses to the same question in the fall 2010 MTSU Poll, which was
conducted before the Giffords shooting, this was a slight increase in those who
said that laws covering firearms sales should stay the same (39 percent) and
those who said they should be less strict (9 percent); and it was a slight
decrease in the number who said they should be more strict (48 percent). These
differences, however, were within the two polls’ margins of error.
Around
the same time that the spring 2011 MTSU Poll was conducted, the same question
regarding firearms laws was asked of a nationwide sample for an NBC News/Wall
Street Journal poll.
Nationally,
a 52 percent majority said that laws covering the sale of firearms should be
more strict, followed by 37 percent who said they should be kept as they are now,
and 10 percent who said they should be less strict.
NBC
News and the Wall Street Journal recently asked the American public this
question again in mid-January 2013, following the Newtown, Conn., elementary
school shooting.
The
poll found that the number who said firearms laws should be more strict had
increased to 56 percent, while those favoring status quo or less strict had
declined to 35 percent and 7 percent, respectively; though these differences
were within these two polls margins of error as well.
“The
Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting may prove to be a watershed moment
not only for the national debate about guns, but also for public opinion in
Tennessee regarding the issue,” said Jason Reineke, associate director of the
MTSU Poll. “If previous findings are a good indicator, we can expect opinions
in Tennessee after the tragedy to either hold steady or perhaps even see increases
in opposition to additional gun control and consequently diverge further from
national opinion as a whole.”
Conflicting views on concealed-carry in
TN
However,
previous MTSU Poll results provide a seemingly contradictory indication of where
Tennesseans may stand on the ongoing debate regarding whether state law should
require employers to allow employees to keep guns in their cars while at work.
In
fall 2009 during another debate about the expansion of places where
concealed-carry permit holders should be allowed to take their weapons, the
MTSU Poll found that majorities of Tennesseans said permit holders should not
be allowed to carry handguns in public parks (54 percent), restaurants (60
percent), or bars (80 percent).
“If
Tennesseans think the same way about parking lots where people work as they do
public parks, restaurants, or bars, we should expect significant opposition to
the proposal to allow guns there,” Reineke said.
For
the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll findings, see: http://tinyurl.com/aq35u2v
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