Support for stricter gun laws has declined since a dramatic spike in late 2012.

Just 47 percent of Americans say they favor stricter laws covering the sale of firearms, down from 58 percent in 2012, according to a new Gallup poll.

The 2012 figure of 58 percent was 15 percentage points higher than the 43 percent support found by Gallup's 2011 survey. Gallup began conducting its 2012 survey less than a week after the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

More than a third (38 percent) of Americans think laws regulating the sale of firearms should be kept as they are now, and 14 percent say they should be loosened.

Handgun ownership is still popular among Americans. Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) now say that handguns should not be banned – a near record high.

Perhaps the least surprising statistic of the poll is the division for stricter gun sale laws among party lines.

Democrats still express the most support for stricter laws — 71 percent — though the number is down from 79 percent two years ago. Conservatives and Republicans — often proponents of gun ownership — both show significantly less support for these types of measures now compared with 2012 — 44 to 32 percent and 39 to 29 percent, respectively.

The random sample poll of 1,017 adults was conducted via telephone from Oct. 12-15. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 points.