Those were some eye-opening results in the NPR Illinois-University of Illinois Springfield poll that have been coming out in dribs and drabs recently.

Specifically, support for various gun control measures that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see. The reason is the state previously has been somewhat evenly split between gun control and gun rights proponents. If you accept the poll’s results, that might be changing.

The poll asked respondents for their views on four specific gun issues: Should magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition be banned; should assault style-weapons like the AR-15 be banned; should there be beefed up mental health background checks of people who want to purchase guns; and should people wanting to obtain Firearm Owners Identification cards be fingerprinted.

The poll said there was “strong support” for every one of those measures. As you might expect, support for those measures was stronger among people who described themselves as Democrats or Democratic leaning than those who call themselves Republicans. However, the poll said there was still a majority of Republicans who supported all of the measures, especially the idea of better mental health checks on gun purchasers.

The survey also broke the respondents down into gun owners and non-gun owners, which is where the really surprising results were. The survey found that a majority of gun owners responding to the poll favored all four ideas, including banning the sale of assault-style weapons and fingerprinting FOID card holders.

The survey polled more than 1,000 registered voters. There are people who have questioned the way the poll was conducted (using online questioning). And it isn’t likely to prompt passage of a sudden flood of gun control legislation. But combined with other polls on gun issues, it may cause some people to rethink what kind of gun bills might pass in this state.

Not-so-unified

You might be thinking that if Illinois can be moving toward some greater unity on various gun issues, then all is good in the state.

And, of course, you would be wrong.

For example, people were asked whether climate change should be a top priority of policymakers. There was a huge split between Republicans and Democrats on this. Some 57 percent of Democrats thought it should be a top priority and 22 percent of Republicans. On the plus side, a pretty overwhelming majority of everyone — Democrats, Republicans and Independents — thought something needs to be done on climate change even if it isn’t a top priority.

Sadly, 39 percent of respondents said that most people cannot be trusted. Interestingly, more Democrats said people can’t be trusted than Republicans did. How much Illinois’ checkered politics and politicians played into this response is not clear.

And on that trust issue, the poll found 59 percent trust the Illinois news media. Care to guess which political affiliation has more trust in the Illinois media than the other?

By the numbers

Just for the record, this was the same poll that showed Gov. JB Ptitzker is well-liked by voters who apparently still think the state is on the wrong track.

Pritzker has a 59 percent job approval rating at the same time 56 percent said the state is on the wrong track. Try digesting that for a moment.

Although, maybe people are thinking back to former Gov. Bruce Rauner and they’re not blaming Pritzker for the state being on the wrong track because the governor isn’t in charge anyway.

Countdown

It’s about a week to the start of the veto session where all sorts of high-profile stuff could — repeat, could — be on the agenda at the same time the high-profile federal investigation into something continues.

It could be one of the more interesting veto sessions in a while.

Contact Doug Finke: doug.finke@sj-r.com, 788-1527, twitter.com/dougfinkesjr