• Guns in America: Who owns them and who believes laws should be stricter (or not)

    By Domenico Montanaro, Deputy Political Editor, NBC News

    More Americans say they are now in favor of stricter gun laws than at any time since 2000, after the Columbine shooting, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

    Sixty-one percent said so, a nine-point jump from before the December 2012 Newtown shootings. The last time the question was asked before the shooting was in January 2011. Then, 52 percent said guns laws should be "more strict." 

    What’s responsible?

    The shift is largely due to the Obama coalition of city-dwellers, African Americans, Hispanics, and Democrats, groups that also said they do not own as many guns as rural and white respondents. But there are shifts with most other groups as well. And even though only a minority of Republicans -- 37 percent -- support stricter gun laws, that's a 13-point jump from 2011. 

    In the latest poll, 86 percent of African Americans, 82 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Hispanics, and 71 percent of urban respondents said they were in favor of stricter gun laws, all up double-digits from 2011.

    Urban: 71% (Feb. 2013) - 55% (Jan. 2011). Net change: +16
    African Americans: 86% (Feb. 2013) - 71% (Jan. 2011) Net change: +15
    Republicans: 37% (Feb. 2013) - 24% (Jan. 2011). Net change: +13
    Hispanics: 72% (Feb. 2013) - 60% (Jan. 2011). Net change: +12
    Democrats: 82% (Feb. 2013) - 71% (Jan. 2011). Net change: +11
    Men: 51% (Feb. 2013) - 42% (Jan. 2011). Net change: +9
    Women: 69% (Feb. 2013) - 61% (Jan. 2011). Net change: +8
    Suburban: 59% (Feb. 2013) - 51% (Jan. 2011). Net change: +8
    Whites: 55% (Feb. 2013) - 48% (Jan. 2011). Net change: +7
    Rural: 48% (Feb. 2013) - 41% (Jan. 2011). Net change: +7
    Independents: 49% (Feb. 2013) - 48% (Jan. 2011). Net change: +1 

    SOURCE: NBC/WSJ poll

    There has been virtually no change with independents. In the current poll, 49 percent say gun laws should be stricter, just a one-point increase from January 2011.

    Whether or not someone owns a gun in the household is the biggest factor in supporting or opposing stricter gun laws.

    Among those who do not own a gun in the household, 75 percent support stricter laws. Among those who do, just 45 percent support stricter laws.

    Overall, 42 percent said someone in their household owns a gun.

    So who are they?

    There’s a gender split, with more men saying they own one (48 percent) than women (36 percent).

    It also varies, of course, by region. There are more gun owners in the South (50 percent) than anywhere else. The Northeast has the fewest (28 percent).

    There’s also an urban-rural split. Just 34 percent of those who live in cities said they own a gun, but six-in-10 rural respondents do (59 percent). (Just 41 percent of those who live in the suburbs do.)

    And there’s a Democratic-Republican split as well – just 30 percent of Democrats say they own a gun, while 55 percent of Republicans do. Forty-nine percent of independents said so.

    Reflecting that divide, just 34 percent of Obama voters said someone in their home owns one versus 57 percent of Romney voters.

    By race, whites own more guns than minorities. Nearly half of whites (47 percent) said they own a gun. Just one-in-five African Americans said so (20 percent) and just 28 percent of Hispanics.

    Gun ownership does not vary much by age, but younger voters (18 to 34) are the least likely to own a gun (39 percent).

    And gun owners are more affluent. Those making more than $75,000 a year are the most likely to own a gun (50 percent) – even though professionals (40 percent) and white-collar workers (40 percent) are among the least likely to own one.

    This story was originally published on Wed Feb 27, 2013 11:44 AM EST

  • Obama takes gun control push to murder-plagued Chicago

    Returning to his hometown of Chicago, President Obama touched on issues he address during his State of the Union: Increasing gun violence, Strengthening gun laws, and improving the economy. Watch the entire speech.

    By Michael O'Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News

     

    President Barack Obama took his push for stricter gun laws to his adoptive hometown of Chicago, as that city endures an epidemic of high-profile shooting deaths.

    Speaking near his family home on the south side of Chicago, the president renewed his call for Congress to allow for a vote on his various gun measures. And Obama pointed to recent incidences of violence, including the murder of Hadiya Pendleton, the Chicago teenager who was gunned down shortly after performing with classmates in Obama’s second inaugural parade.

    “This week, in my State of the Union, I talked about Hadiya and the fact that, unfortunately, what happened to Hadiya is not unique,” Obama said, noting that Pendelton’s parents were in attendance at his speech. “It's not unique to Chicago."

    The president’s adoptive hometown, though, has suffered from an epidemic of gun violence. The city suffered over 500 homicides in 2012, including a record number of gun deaths for victims under the age of 18.

    “That's the equivalent of a Newtown every four months,” Obama said, referencing the deadly shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut in December, which left 26 students and teachers dead, and provided the impetus for the administration’s new push for comprehensive legislation to curb gun violence.

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    Conservatives, though, have also helped popularize Chicago as a prime example as to why the president’s gun proposals are ineffective.

    "When President Obama visits Friday, let’s hope we hear something more thoughtful than the usual rhetoric about expanding background checks, to which gangs never submit, and banning some weapons which they rarely use," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., wrote Thursday in the Chicago Tribune.

    “Honesty about what it will really take to face gang violence is the best tribute he can offer to Hadiya Pendleton and the dozens of other children killed in Chicago each year,” Gingrich added in his op-ed, referring to the Pendleton’s parents attended Friday’s speech at Hyde Park Academy.

    Obama used his speech at the academy to also talk up elements of his education reforms proposed in the State of the Union address earlier this week, including expanded access to Pre-K education and better federal support for schools and standards. The president also talked up his proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9.00/hour, though such a proposal has already encountered resistance from Republicans on Capitol Hill.

    This story was originally published on Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:51 PM EST

  • NRA exec accuses Obama of gun 'charade' at State of the Union

    Addressing the National Wild Turkey Federation in Nashville, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre doubles down on his call for armed police or guards in every American school.

    By Michael O'Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News

    The National Rifle Association’s CEO on Thursday accused President Barack Obama of orchestrating a “charade” to dismantle gun rights in his State of the Union address this week.

    Wayne LaPierre, the gun lobby group’s executive vice president and CEO, used a speech at a National Wild Turkey Federation conference in Nashville to decry the push for stricter gun laws made by Obama at the conclusion of his annual policy address on Tuesday.

    “For our Second Amendment freedoms, Mr. President, we will stand and fight throughout this country as Americans for our freedoms,” LaPierre said to applause. “We promise you that.”

    The gun rights advocate complained that “the words ‘school safety’ were nowhere to be found” in Obama’s address and renewed his call for funding to put an armed guard in every school in America. (Obama did speak of the need to “protect our most precious resource:  our children.”)

    A special weeklong examination of gun violence, gun ownership and gun legislation. NBC News journalists will report across "NBC Nightly News," "TODAY," MSNBC, CNBC, NBCNews.com, and more. The conversation will also extend across NBC News and MSNBC's social media platforms using the hashtag #GunsInUSA.

    “It was only a few weeks ago that they were marketing their anti-gun agenda as a way of protecting schoolchildren from harm,” LaPierre said.  “That charade ended at the State of the Union, when the president himself exposed their fraudulent intentions. It’s not about keeping kids safe in school.… They only care about their decades-long, decades-old gun control agenda.”

    Obama closed the speech by referencing victims of gun violence and victims’ families in attendance at his speech, forcefully repeating that those victims at least “deserve a vote” on the gun control measures proposed by the administration in the wake of the deadly December shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

    "Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote," Obama said to sustained applause. "The families of Oak Creek and Tucson and Blacksburg and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence –- they deserve a simple vote."

    LaPierre has been as dogged as ever, though, in resisting those proposals, taking to conservative media in recent days to make his point. Writing Wednesday for the Daily Caller, LaPierre evoked a dystopian vision of a world without guns in the aftermath of last year’s Hurricane Sandy in New York.

    “After Hurricane Sandy, we saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia,” LaPierre wrote. “Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn. There was no food, water or electricity. And if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark, or you might not get home at all.”

    However, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the time there were no murders committed during the storm or its very immediate aftermath.