A new YouGov poll says that more than a third of people polled now say that mass shootings are “just a fact of life in America today.”
The poll said 35 percent of those asked feel this way, and fewer than half of those asked, 48 percent, think that mass shootings are something that can be stopped.
Mass shootings are described as incidents where four or more people are killed or injured by gunfire, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker. As of Oct. 1., the same day a young man went into Umpqua Community College in Oregon and killed 10 people, including himself, there had already been 294 mass shootings in the United States, according to the tracker.
But despite these numbers, most aren’t inclined to believe stricter gun control will stop gun deaths. Forty-four percent of those polled say that stricter gun laws are more likely to prevent mass shootings, while just 36 percent said allowing more private citizens to carry guns would have the effect.
Just 14 percent think stricter gun control laws would increase the number of gun deaths.
Nearly half (49 percent) support stricter laws on the sale of handguns, while 30 percent support the laws as they stand now and 13 percent want the laws to be loosened. However, even in the wake of deadly shootings such as Sandy Hook and others, distribution of support for gun laws has remained significantly the same.
The support for stricter gun laws remains partisan, too. More than seven in 10 (74 percent) of Democrats want to make gun laws more strict, compared to just 27 percent of Republicans who say the same thing; 47 percent of Republicans want no change in gun laws.
The poll of 1,000 adults was conducted Oct. 2-5 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
