Coloradans, who have endured mass shootings at Columbine High School and at an Aurora movie theater last year, have long held a mix of ideas about guns that favor the rights of firearms owners, but those opinions have become more nuanced, according to the findings of a new Denver Post poll.

While a majority of respondents expressed support for gun-owner rights, they expressed greater support for specific limitations that would strengthen gun laws.

Proposals that would ban assault-style rifles, limit the number of cartridges allowed in ammunition magazines and require universal background checks on gun sales garnered more than 60 percent support from those polled.

The findings of the poll come after President Barack Obama last week announced a plan to toughen gun-control laws nationally after highly reported mass shootings. A handful of his proposals are already in the works at the state level.

The latest Post poll, conducted the day after Obama’s announcement, found that overall support for the rights of gun owners shrank from an earlier Post poll in September — conducted shortly after the Aurora theater shootings.

In September, The Post asked likely voters, “What do you think is more important — to protect the right of Americans to own guns? Or, to control gun ownership?”

At the time, 56 percent said it was more important to protect the right to own guns, while 39 percent said it was more important to control gun ownership. The September survey polled likely voters in anticipation of the presidential election. Last week’s poll came after the election.

Now, as the debate over gun control has intensified, response to this poll question narrowed to 50 percent who say it is more important to protect gun ownership to 45 percent who say it is more important to control gun ownership.

The same dynamic is true for a September question in which Coloradans were asked, “What do you think is the best way to reduce gun violence in this country: by passing stricter gun-control laws? Or by stricter enforcement of existing laws?”

Though more people continue to support tough enforcement of existing laws, the number favoring stricter laws increased by 8 percentage points.

The poll, conducted for The Post by SurveyUSA, surveyed 600 Coloradans through an automated process that included land lines and cellphones. It has a margin of error of about plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Coloradans remain strong supporters of the National Rifle Association, a gun-advocacy group, with 56 percent in support and 30 percent who say they oppose the organization.

“Colorado has that weird mix. … This is a state known to have hunters who support the Second Amendment but are conscious of what they feel is a need for gun laws,” said political analyst Floyd Ciruli.

Ciruli notes that it has been more than a decade since Colorado lawmakers have looked to pass stricter gun laws.

Enter members of the 69th General Assembly, which convened this month. With Democrats controlling both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office, their announced plans to strengthen gun-control laws — and even add new ones — have strong tail winds of public support.

In the Post poll, 83 percent of Coloradans say they support a state and/or a federal law that requires a background check on anyone who buys a gun, including gun buyers who purchase from a private seller.

A bill that aims to require across-the-board background checks is set to be presented by state Rep. Rhonda Fields, D- Aurora, this week to the Democrat-controlled legislature.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper in his State of the State address this month “primed the pump” and offered an endorsement of background checks for all gun sales.

Republican leadership in the state legislature has balked at such a measure, saying such a law would infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

“For Democrats, this helps their argument against Republicans that they’re ‘out of touch’ with mainstream society,” Ciruli said.

“Not at all that crazy”

Some Republican lawmakers have proposed a measure that would allow school districts to permit teachers to carry concealed weapons in schools. Fifty percent of respondents to The Post poll said teachers should not be allowed to carry a weapon in a school, compared with 41 percent who said they should be able to.

“Not at all that crazy,” said Kenneth Zarecor, who lives in Grand Junction, is a Democrat and owns a firearm. “More guns is not the answer. I know we live in the West, but, come on, this isn’t some Wild West shootout kind of state.”

Moreover, the poll found that 64 percent of Coloradans support the reinstatement and strengthening of a law that would ban assault-style weapons, while 30 percent believe such a law should not be enacted at either the state or federal level.

Republicans, such as Gene Brent of Colorado Springs, are four times more likely than Democrats to oppose reinstatement of an assault-style weapons law.

“It’s Hollywood; it’s the news. … All that is what’s wrong,” said Brent, who responded to The Post poll. “Laws don’t fix these mass shootings.”

Meanwhile, Carmen Alexander, who lives in Aurora, is among the 62 percent of Coloradans who support a law to restore a 10-round limit on ammunition magazines. By contrast, 35 percent of those polled said such a law should not be enacted at either the state or federal level.

“If you can’t shoot what you need to with 10 bullets, what makes someone think they can do it with 25 or 50?” said Alexander. “Those huge clips are what killers want and use.”

Samuel Powell of Fort Lupton said he uses extended magazines to sport shoot and that lawmakers who want to ban high-capacity magazines don’t understand the use of such accessories.

“Let’s toughen mental health and not put more bans in place,” Powell said.

The Post poll found that 61 percent of Coloradans don’t believe the state is doing a good enough job at keeping guns out the hands of the mentally ill. Some lawmakers have floated the idea of proposing legislation that addresses mental health and guns, though nothing concrete has been worked out.

“With more news of mass shootings, the opinions of people change,” Ciruli said. “And when it’s at the forefront of discussion nationally, people are going to really look and analyze what’s reasonable and what is not.”

Kurtis Lee: 303-954-1655, klee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kurtisalee

How this poll was conducted

This SurveyUSA poll was conducted by telephone in the voice of a professional announcer. Respondent households were selected at random and has a margin of error of about plus or minus 4 percent. All respondents heard the questions asked identically. Where necessary, responses were weighted according to age, gender, ethnic origin, geographical area and number of adults and number of voice telephone lines in the household, so that the sample would reflect the actual demographic proportions in the population, using most recent U.S.Census estimates. In theory, with the stated sample size, one can say with 95% certainty that the results would not vary by more than the stated margin of sampling error, in one direction or the other, had the entire universe of respondents been interviewed with complete accuracy. There are other possible sources of error in all surveys that may be more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. These include refusals to be interviewed, question wording and question order, weighting by demographic control data and the manner in which respondents are filtered (such as, determining who is a likely voter). It is difficult to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. Fieldwork for this survey was done by SurveyUSA of Clifton, NJ.

How this poll was conducted

This SurveyUSA poll was conducted by telephone in the voice of a professional announcer. Respondent households were selected at random, and the poll has a margin of error of about plus or minus 4 percentage points. All respondents were asked the questions identically.

Where necessary, responses were weighted according to age, gender, ethnic origin, geographical area and number of adults and number of voice telephone lines in the household, so that the sample would reflect the actual demographic proportions in the population, using most recent U.S. Census estimates. In theory, with the stated sample size, there is a 95 percent certainty that the results would not vary by more than the stated margin of sampling error, in one direction or the other, had the entire universe of respondents been interviewed with complete accuracy. There are other possible sources of error in all surveys that may be more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. These include refusals to be interviewed, question wording and question order, weighting by demographic control data and the manner in which respondents are filtered (such as determining who is a likely voter). It is difficult to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. Fieldwork for this survey was done by SurveyUSA of Clifton, N.J.