Most voters oppose tougher gun control for the first time since the Connecticut elementary school shootings in December 2012.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 40% of Likely U.S. Voters now think the United States needs stricter gun control laws, down nine points from last May and the lowest level of support for stricter laws since February 2012. Fifty-three percent (53%) do not think the country needs tougher gun control laws, the highest level of opposition in over two years. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on March 26-27, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.