Polls Since Columbine Show No Lasting Support for Stricter Gun Control

By Jon E. Dougherty at 21 Jul 2012

(Newsroom America) -- Despite a spate of high-profile, emotionally charged mass shootings in the U.S. since the 1999 attacks at Columbine High School near Denver, just a few miles from Friday's shooting at a theater in Aurora, Colo., polls do not reflect Americans' desire to enact stricter gun control laws.

Shortly after the Columbine shooting, support for tightening gun control laws rose but it was a brief spike, The Huffington Post reported Saturday. A year later, that spike had disappeared.

Since then, support for more gun control remained fairly constant for the next eight years. But after the 2008 election, support for gun control fell considerably, according to several polls.

By 2010, HuffPo reported, the Pew Research Center said support for protecting gun ownership rights surpassed those Americans seeking stricter rules, 49-45 percent.

Similar results were reported by surveys conducted by Gallup, The Washington Post and ABC News.

Analysts say Friday's massacre at a local theater during the midnight premier of "The Dark Night Rises," the latest Batman movie, allegedly by 24-year-old James Holmes, is likely to see polling figures rise for more gun control once more, though judging by history, the expected bump is likely to fade again with time.

Already, however, politicians and gun control groups have begun to call for tightening rules for firearms ownership.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called on both President Barack Obama and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to explain their positions on the issue.

"You know, Governor Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts actually passed a ban on assault weapons, and President Obama when he came into office in 2008 said he would reinstitute a federal ban on assault weapons," Bloomberg told CBS News in an interview earlier Saturday.

"The governor has apparently changed his views and the president has spent the last three years trying to avoid the issue or if he's facing it, I don't know anybody that's seen him face it," he said, adding: "It's time for both of them to be called, held accountable."

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