Report: Overwhelming Support for Gun Sale Restrictions

The August 2019 Daily Kos/Civiqs Poll asked 1,687 registered voters nationwide about top political issues including gun sale restrictions, white nationalism, and Washington, DC and Puerto Rico statehood.

Gun Sale Restrictions

Large majorities of Americans across party lines support basic gun ownership regulations. There is broad agreement on requiring background checks for all gun sales (86%) and that individuals convicted of a hate crime should be prohibited from buying or owning a firearm (81%). Both of these proposals are supported by over 70% of Republicans, 75% of Independents, and 95% of Democrats.

Furthermore, half of Americans -- 51% -- support a total ban on the sale of semi-automatic assault guns. Support for an assault weapon ban is highest among Americans with more education: 69% of those with a postgraduate education, compared to 46% of those without a college degree.

White Nationalism

The majority of Americans (57%) think that white nationalism is either a very serious or somewhat serious threat in the United States. Black and Hispanic/Latino Americans see the greatest threat: 70% of Blacks and 74% of Latinos believe that white nationalism is a serious threat, with the large majority of those saying it is a very serious threat. Most whites also share this view (40% serious threat, 12% somewhat serious). However, 18% of whites believe that white nationalism is not a serious threat, and 27% say it is not a threat at all.

Concerns about white nationalism are starkly divided across party lines. Democrats see the greatest threat (89%), followed by over half of Independents (51%), but fewer than a quarter (23%) of Republicans.

Even more vivid is how Americans’ concerns over white nationalism are related to their television news choices. Fully 94% of those who frequently watch MSNBC think that white nationalism is a very serious or somewhat serious threat in the United States. Conversely, only 17% of frequent Fox News viewers think that white nationalism is a somewhat or very serious threat, and they are the only group examined in which a majority (50%) do not think that white nationalism is a threat at all.

Nearly half of Americans (48%) think that President Trump supports white nationalism. This includes 85% of Democrats, 44% of Independents, and 8% of Republicans. About two-thirds of Black (65%) and Hispanic/Latino (66%) Americans think that the president supports white nationalism, compared to only 42% of white Americans.

Washington, DC and Puerto Rico Statehood

Although both Puerto Rico and Washington, DC have passed referendums in support of becoming states, only Puerto Rico statehood has majority support (54%) nationwide. A plurality of Americans oppose Washington, DC statehood (31% support, 40% oppose), with the strongest opposition coming from Republicans (65%). Many Americans are unsure on the question of statehood for both Washington, DC (29% unsure) and Puerto Rico (17% unsure). This suggests that there is room for future changes on both sides of the issue.

Black Americans are among the most supportive on both statehood questions: 45% for Washington, DC and 67% for Puerto Rico. While Hispanic/Latino Americans are identical to white Americans in their support of DC statehood (28%), they are the strongest supporters of Puerto Rico’s statehood, with 69% in favor.

Civiqs surveyed 1687 registered voters in the United States from August 10-12, 2019. The survey was conducted online, among selected members of the Civiqs research panel. Sampled individuals were emailed by Civiqs and responded using a personalized link to the survey at civiqs.com. The survey results are weighted by age, race, gender, education, party identification, and region to be representative of the population of registered voters in the United States. The general design effect due to weighting is 1.15. The survey has a margin of error of ±2.6% at the 95% confidence level, accounting for the design effect.