By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A new poll by the Deseret News revealed only 30 percent of respondents now support stricter gun control laws, while 46 percent told pollsters their opinions on gun control had not changed.
Eight percent oppose tougher gun laws, and 16 percent expressed no opinion, or simply don’t know, the newspaper said.
Another poll revelation is that people are almost evenly split on whether the media treats the issue of gun-related violence fairly. The poll found that 16 percent thinks media coverage is very fair and 25 percent ay it is somewhat fair, while 21 percent say the media is not very fair and 20 percent think the media is not at all fair, essentially a 41-41 percent dead heat.
The poll was taken Sept. 10-15, mainly in the aftermath of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Kirk was fatally shot Sept. 10. The survey results may be viewed here.
The survey was done by Morning Consult for the Deseret News and the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics, the newspaper said. It was conducted among 2,239 adults. It has a +/- error margin of 2 percentage points.
The poll also revealed that 63 percent are “very concerned” about gun-related violence, and 21 percent are “somewhat concerned.” It also said 48 percent think Kirk’s murder will have a major impact on national politics, while 25 percent think it will have a minor impact. Another 10 percent think the assassination will have no impact at all.
Another revelation, which is almost predictable, is that 49 percent of Democratic men support tougher gun laws, but only 26 percent of Republicans share that view.
On the subject of domestic terrorism, the poll discovered that 57 percent of respondents (1,273) are “very concerned” and another 28 percent (627) are “somewhat concerned.” On the other hand, only 5 percent are “not too concerned” and 3 percent are “not at all” concerned.
Ideologically, according to the poll demographic breakdown, 26 percent of respondents consider themselves liberal, 31 percent say they are moderate and 29 percent described themselves as conservative.
One alarming revelation of the Morning Consult survey was that 29 percent of respondents said they did not vote in the 2024 presidential election. Of those who cast ballots, 36 percent voted for Kamala Harris, 32 percent voted for Donald Trump and3 percent voted for someone else.
