A majority of Americans continue to favor stricter laws governing firearm sales, even as the share wanting less restrictive laws has reached a record high in Gallup’s polling.
In findings released Nov. 12, Gallup reported that 56% of U.S. adults want stricter gun-sale laws, 27% want laws kept as they are and 15% favor less strict laws. A separate question found 54% support banning the manufacture, possession and sale of semiautomatic rifles described in the survey as assault rifles.
Support for less strict laws reaches a new high
Support for stricter gun-sale laws was four percentage points below last year’s 60%, matching the readings in 2023 and 2024. It remained well below the 78% recorded in 1990, when Gallup first asked the question.
The 15% favoring less strict laws was three points above last year and one point above the previous high, recorded in 2014.
Republicans showed the strongest preference for keeping current laws: Half favored that position, while 31% wanted less strict laws and 16% wanted stricter laws. Gallup said this was the first time in its trend that more Republicans favored loosening gun laws than tightening them. Republican support for stricter laws reached its lowest level, while support for less strict laws reached its highest.
Among independents, 54% favored stricter laws, down from 63% last year. Another 28% wanted no change and 16% favored less strict laws, matching that group’s highest reading in the past 25 years.
Democratic support for stricter laws remained high at 89%, similar to recent years. Nine percent favored keeping laws unchanged and 1% wanted less strict laws. Across the full sample, women were more likely than men to favor stricter laws, 65% to 45%.
Majority supports an assault rifle ban
On the separate rifle-ban question, 54% supported a ban and 44% opposed one. Support was similar to the 52% measured in 2024 and 55% in 2022, but below the 61% recorded in 2019.
Democrats were most supportive at 75%, followed by independents at 52% and Republicans at 28%. Democratic support was below the 89% recorded in 2022 and 85% in 2019. Republican support was also below its 2019 reading of 38%.
Women were substantially more likely than men to favor the ban, 70% to 36%. Support also increased with age: 43% among adults ages 18 to 34, 53% among those 35 to 54 and 61% among those 55 and older.
Four in 10 worry about a mass shooting
Forty percent said they were very or somewhat worried that they or a family member would become a victim of a mass shooting. That included 12% who were very worried and 28% who were somewhat worried. Another 32% were not too worried and 27% were not worried at all.
The combined level of concern was below readings of 48% and 45% in two 2019 surveys, but similar to the 38% to 39% measured in 2015 and 2017.
Concern was higher among Democrats, at 51%, and independents, at 45%, than among Republicans, at 21%. Gallup noted that the partisan pattern was reversed in 2015, when 48% of Republicans and 32% of Democrats expressed concern.
Younger adults were more worried than older adults. Concern stood at 54% among those ages 18 to 34, compared with 43% among those 35 to 54 and 30% among those 55 and older.
Household gun ownership remains stable
Forty-three percent reported having a gun in their household, including 31% who personally owned a firearm and 12% who said another household member owned one. Those results were close to Gallup’s averages since 2000: 30% for personal ownership and 43% for household ownership.
Republicans were more than twice as likely as Democrats to report personally owning a gun, 47% to 20%, with independents at 29%. Men were about twice as likely as women to own a gun, and adults 35 and older were more likely to own one than younger adults.
How the poll was conducted
The findings came from telephone interviews conducted by ReconMR Oct. 1-19, 2026, with a random sample of 1,200 adults living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Gallup reported a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points for the full national sample at the 95% confidence level, including weighting effects. That full-sample margin should not be applied to the smaller demographic and political groups.
The sample used minimum quotas of 80% cellphone respondents and 20% landline respondents, with numbers selected through random-digit dialing. Gallup cautioned that question wording and practical survey difficulties can also introduce error or bias.
The results describe national opinion; the supplied report does not provide a separate estimate for New York or the Finger Lakes.
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