A new poll released by Gallup shows that public support for more gun control restrictions is at the lowest point since 2016.

"The latest majority (57 percent) in the U.S. who call for stricter laws covering the sale of firearms marks a seven-percentage-point decline since last year," noted the pollster. "At the same time, 34 percent of U.S. adults prefer that gun laws be kept as they are now, while 9 percent would like them to be less strict."

Gallup has been regularly tracking the question since 1990, when they found a whopping 78 percent of respondents were in favor of tougher laws on guns, pointing at a 21-point decline since then.

Breaking down the demographics of the question, 85 percent of Democrats said they were in favor of more gun control while 62 percent of Republicans said current gun laws are fine and another 16 percent said they should be less strict. Gun control also trended higher with women and urban dwellers, each by roughly a two-to-one margin, while men and those who live in more rural areas trended overwhelmingly against tougher gun laws. 

Trade groups for the American firearms industry said the poll shows that anti-gun groups aren't dialed into the country's true feelings towards added restrictions on legal gun owners.  

"Americans want less gun control laws now than they did in 2016, when Hillary Clinton campaigned and lost on a platform of enacting bans on modern sporting rifles and clamping down on Second Amendment rights," said Larry Keane, senior vice president, and general counsel, National Shooting Sports Foundation. "American support for stricter gun control laws slipped seven percent in just one year while firearm sales are breaking records and rioting and looting is wreaking havoc in American cities as gun control politicians called for, and actually did, defund the police. Forty-three percent of Americans want less gun control laws or for them to remain the same, according to the poll."

However, Keane argued the poll itself likely skews left, pointing to a historic swell of over 5 million new first-time gun owners in 2020, all-time record gun sales, and the repeated misfire by pollsters to capture accurate data when it comes to more conservative voters. 

"What is more likely the case is many gun owners are distrustful of pollsters and self-select out of these surveys, meaning pollsters are over-sampling non-gun owners," said Keane. "It’s hardly inconceivable that a firearm owner wouldn’t want to reveal their private firearm ownership information for concerns of theft or being targeted for political retribution and confiscation, as has been threatened by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez."

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