Americans by a wide majority want tighter controls on the sale of firearms and a ban on assault weapons and think handguns should be registered, according to a new poll.
The USA Today-CNN-Gallup poll found that six out of 10 people oppose an outright ban on handguns, but the reverse was true when the question referred to "cheap" handguns. Six out of 10 would ban the "cheap" guns. The report on the survey did not spell out the distinction between handguns in general and cheap hand-guns.The poll found wide support for gun control.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they favored stricter laws controlling firearms sales, with only 7 percent saying the laws should be less strict. Twenty-five percent said the laws should stay as they are.
And with 81 percent favoring the registration of handguns, only 18 percent opposed such a move. The rest had no opinion.
Fully 87 percent of respondents said they approved of the new Brady law requiring a five-day waiting period for a background check before the purchase of a firearm.
Eighty-nine percent of those polled said people should be required to take safety classes before qualifying to own a gun.