In June, Americans saw the deadliest mass shooting in US history in Orlando, Florida. Before that, the latest mass shooting was in San Bernardino, California. Both occurred at the hands of a shooter with an assault weapon. Now we face the murder of five police officers, shot by a sniper in Dallas. A recent CNN/ORC poll shows that Americans want stricter gun control — but on which guns?
We showed people 11 different firearms. They told us which ones should be banned.
According to our research: the types used in those very attacks.
Vox and Morning Consult conducted a national survey in which 2,000 people were asked whether they thought certain rifles, handguns, and shotguns should be legal, based solely on the appearance of the gun.
Participants were shown the names and pictures of 11 firearms and asked whether they thought the gun should be illegal, then whether they thought it actually was illegal in the US.
Which guns should be legal?
The results showed that a high majority of people (about 70 percent) were in favor of small handguns like the flare gun, the .44 Magnum, and the Taurus 605 being legal. The same could be said for the Golden Boy Rifle and the Montefeltro. However, only a small minority (10 to 20 percent) felt that assault weapons like the AK-47, the Uzi, and the MG3 should be legal.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say that each gun should be legal by about 20 percentage points. For example, about 80 percent of Republicans said the Golden Boy rifle should be legal, compared with 59 percent of Democrats.
Among Democrats, 20 percent said all 11 guns should be illegal, while 15 percent of Republicans said they should all be legal.
Men overall were more likely to say each gun should be legal by about 10 percentage points.
Which guns are actually legal?
The second part of the survey asked respondents about the current legality of each gun. States have different rules when it comes to which firearms are banned — for example, the AK-47 is legal to purchase in Idaho but illegal in California.
Seven states (California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York) and the District of Columbia have laws banning the purchase or carrying of assault weapons. Minnesota and Virginia also regulate — but do not ban — assault weapons. For example, someone who has committed a violent crime cannot buy an assault weapon in Minnesota, regardless of whether the crime was committed in the state.
AK-47s, Uzis, and MG3s generally fall under such bans and regulations.
When asked whether each gun was legal in the US, most people polled were able to accurately say which handguns were legal, but they were not as sure with rifles. Overall, men were more familiar with the legality of each gun.
