Poll: Big Majority Want Background Checks, Ban On Assault Weapons

In a new Quinnipiac poll released today, 95 percent of Americans (including 91% in gun households) want a universal background check for the purchase of a gun, the largest margin since Quinnipiac began polling the question four years ago. The poll also revealed that 65 percent (including 51% in gun households) favor a ban on the sale of assault weapons.

Polls such as these are useful if only to highlight the chasm between what the majority of Americans want -- including a majority of gun owners on both questions -- and their coin-operated elected representatives (overwhelmingly Rethuglican) are giving them. Unless and until we change the political makeup of Congress and the White House, the opinion of the vast majority of Americans will continue to be ignored in favor of the profits of the powerful and wealthy gun manufacturers lobby.