The heavy coverage of mass shootings in Binghamton, N.Y., North Carolina and Washington state and the cop killings in Pittsburgh has had little apparent effect on the nation's appetite for new gun laws. A Gallup Poll out this morning shows support for a ban on private hand gun ownership at an all time low, with 29 percent of respondents saying they support such a law. It's the smallest percentage since Gallup started asking this question 50 years ago. Interestingly, gun control advocacy hit its all time high in 1959, according to this poll. It's important to note that the poll was taken before the massacre in Binghamton, but other mass shootings have been in the news for a few weeks.
The poll may show why virtually nobody in Congress is rolling out new gun control legislation. Indeed, when I served on a panel earlier this year with Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), he said there didn't seem to be any appetite for new gun control laws, even with a Democratic president and an expanded liberal majority in Congress.
Gallup Poll Details: www.gallup.com/poll/11736...ntrol-Laws-Time-Lows.aspx