The White House indicated on Monday that President Donald Trump supports strengthening background checks for gun purchases. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Majority polled says Trump, Congress not doing enough to stop mass shootings

More than three-quarters of respondents to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll said Congress is not doing enough to stop mass shootings, while just over 60 percent said the same of President Donald Trump.

The poll was conducted last week and over the weekend in the wake of a shooting at a Florida high school in which a former student killed 17 people.


Of those polled, 62 percent said Trump is not doing enough to prevent mass shootings in the U.S., and 77 percent said the same of Congress.

Fifty percent said they would support a nationwide ban on assault weapons, which are often the firearm used in mass shootings, while 46 percent said they would oppose such a ban. Fifty-eight percent of respondents in the poll said they believed stricter gun control laws could have prevented last week’s shooting, compared with 37 percent who said tighter laws would not have prevented it.

Fifty-one percent said the shooting could not have been prevented if teachers were allowed to carry guns, while 42 percent said such rules could have stopped it. More effective mental health screening and treatment could have stopped the shootings, 77 percent of respondents said.

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Last week’s high school shooting, among the deadliest in U.S. history, has prompted renewed calls for tougher gun control laws. On Monday, the White House indicated that Trump supports strengthening background checks for gun purchases. The president also singled out the gunman’s reported mental health issues as the underlying problem behind the attack.

Respondents to the Washington Post/ABC News poll seemed to agree with the president on that point: Fifty-seven percent said mass shootings in the U.S. are a reflection of “problems identifying and treating people with mental health problems,” while just 28 percent said such shootings are the product of inadequate gun control laws.

The Washington Post/ABC News poll was conducted Feb. 15-18, reaching 808 adults nationwide on cellphones and landlines. The poll’s margin of error was plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.