A CNN poll indicates that 42 percent of registered voters find the subject of firearms policy to be “very important” in the coming election. Jim Geraghty points out that only 22 percent gave the same answer in 2012. Likewise, the percentage of respondents saying that gun issues were “not that important” to them fell from 22 to 8.
With a presidential election coming up and several high-profile shootings in memory, it is not surprising that gun policy is a hot-button issue right now. But before you start worrying, this public shift in priorities does not appear to signal any corresponding shift in beliefs: Americans are holding strong in favor of the Second Amendment.