98 percent of the state's voters support universal background checks. Poll: Conn. backs new gun laws

Nearly four months after 20 children were massacred in their state, Connecticut voters support, by broad margins, a wide swath of gun control measures, according to a poll released Wednesday

A Quinnipiac University poll asked about ten different gun control proposals. A majority of voters backed all but one. But Nutmeg State Republicans, while supporting specific measures, are hesitant about the general idea of gun control.


Ninety-three percent of voters support universal background checks, 86 percent want a gun offender registry, 85 percent back a permit requirement to carry all guns, 76 percent want stricter gun storage requirements, 72 percent support universal handgun registration, 68 percent support an expansion of the state’s assault weapons ban, 63 percent want to limit handgun purchases to one a month and 50 percent back mandatory liability insurance for gun owners.

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The 93 percent support for universal background checks is the highest level of support for any policy idea in the university’s two decades of polling the state, Quinnipiac said.

The one proposal dividing the electorate is a measure that would ban convicted drunk drivers from owning weapons. Only 45 percent of voters support the idea, with 48 percent opposed.

Fifty-four percent of voters also backed putting armed security guards in Connecticut schools, with 41 percent opposed. Forty-six percent back a ban on children playing violent games at public arcades, and 48 percent oppose it.

Despite backing most of the gun control proposals, only 45 percent of Republicans want stricter gun control in general, and 48 percent oppose it. Fifty-five percent of the state’s GOP disapproves of how Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, is handling gun control.

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But gun control appears to be a political winner in the state, with 54 percent of voters saying the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December made them more likely to support gun control, and 42 percent saying they would be more likely to back a supporter of gun control. Only 20 percent said it would make their support less likely.

But they have little expectation of bipartisan progress. Fifty-four percent don’t think the two parties will be able to work together on gun violence issues, while 39 percent have a more optimistic view.

The poll of 1,009 registered voters was conducted on March 4-5. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

This article tagged under: Gun Control