Gun control support at all-time low

The heavy coverage of mass shootings in Binghamton, N.Y., North Carolina and Washington state and the cop killings in Pittsburgh may have little effect on the nation's appetite for new gun laws.

A Gallup Poll out this morning shows support for a ban on private handgun ownership at an all time low, with 29 percent of respondents saying they support such a law. It's the smallest percentage since Gallup started asking this question 50 years ago. Interestingly, gun control advocacy hit its all time high in 1959, according to this poll. It's important to note that the poll was taken before the massacre in Binghamton, but other mass shootings have been in the news for a few weeks.

And the poll also notes that 49 percent of Americans want stricter gun control laws than what's on the books now.

The poll may show why virtually nobody in Congress is rolling out new gun control legislation. Indeed, when I served on a panel earlier this year with Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), he said there didn't seem to be any appetite for new gun control laws, even with a Democratic president and an expanded liberal majority in Congress.

UPDATE/CORRECTION: The folks at Media Matters have made a fair point in criticizing this post, noting that the polling was done several months ago -- even though Gallup posted this poll just today. It's still worth noting that there isn't yet a ground swell of support in the Democratic Congress for new gun control laws in wake of the tragic shootings, but I should have drilled into this polling data more closely. Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign, writing in HuffPo, has also taken Gallup to task, calling the release of the poll today misleading.