Support for stricter gun laws has declined in the year since a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which 17 people were killed, but a majority of U.S adults still believe restrictions on gun sales should be tighter.

In the immediate aftermath of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, a year ago, 71 percent of American said gun sales should be stricter. That number has dropped to 51 percent now, a year later, according to a new NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll .

Ten percent of Americans now think gun sales laws should be less strict, compared to 5 percent a year ago, while 36 percent now say gun laws should be kept as they are, a 13-point jump from last year's mark of 23 percent.

The results are sharply divided on partisan lines: Eighty percent of Democrats today say the laws should be tighter, while 22 percent of Republicans say the same.

The dip in support for tighter gun laws over time is part of a longtime pattern in public opinion. Support for stricter gun control often spikes after a mass shooting, only to fall once the shooting has receded from the public consciousness, a Gallup analysis concluded.

But activism from Marjory Stoneman Douglas students, who created the March For Our Lives movement to promote stricter gun laws, has endeavored to keep the Parkland shooting and the debate over gun control in the news in the months since the tragedy took place.

More people today say that it is more important to control gun violence than it is to protect gun rights than said the same in the month after the Parkland shooting: Fifty-eight percent of Americans say today it is more important to control gun violence than protect gun rights, up from 54 percent in March of last year, a month after the shooting.

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The results are split along party lines. Seven in 10 Republicans say it's more important to protect gun rights, while nearly 9 in 10 Democrats say the priority should be to control gun violence.

Almost 60 percent of gun owners say it's more important to protect gun rights, while 35 percent say controlling gun violence is more pressing.