From Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, tragic school shootings have brought the issue of gun violence to the forefront of national attention and political discourse. According to the Fall 2019 Harvard Public Opinion Project Youth Poll, which surveyed 2,075 young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29, about 81 percent of American youth support universal background checks. This gun control policy was by far the most popular among those about which respondents were questioned, which also included the implementation of a mandatory buyback program and an assault weapons ban. Although recent activism among young people might seem to suggest broader support for such policies, HPOP data shows that their feelings about gun control largely mirror that of the population as a whole: only universal background check legislation garners strong bipartisan support.
An Overview of Universal Background Checks
Universal background checks refers to legislation intended to prevent people who are not legally allowed to purchase firearms from obtaining them illegally through private sales or at gun shows. According to the Giffords Law Center, “80 percent of firearms acquired for criminal purposes are obtained through unlicensed sellers.” While universal background checks would not reduce the number of guns that are currently in the hands of criminals, they would drastically reduce the “flow of new firearms and ammunition to criminal markets.”
There are many popular reasons for supporting universal background checks, ranging from the ease of their implementation to the proven efficacy of their approach. As the vast majority of background checks processed through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) — a system developed by the FBI to check “available records on persons who may be disqualified from receiving firearms” — are complete in under two minutes, the implementation of a universal background check requirement would not require much extra effort from gun sellers.
Furthermore, universal background checks have the potential to be an effective method of enforcing gun control laws that are currently in place. Over 99 percent of the time, NICS background checks are able to accurately alert the seller if a customer is prohibited from purchasing a firearm, and very rarely do they produce false-positive results that would prevent someone with a clean record from obtaining a weapon. While addressing the epidemic of gun violence in the country might require more than this policy, implementing universal background checks could be an effective and politically feasible first step toward doing so.
Drawing Partisan Lines
Unlike many other gun control measures, universal background checks are supported across party lines. This may be a result of the fact that unlike other policy options, universal background checks do not propose implementing new restrictions on gun ownership or accessibility but rather only enforce existing laws.
HPOP data show that universal background checks enjoy support from young Democrats and Republicans alike, with 78 percent of right-leaning respondents and 87 percent of left-leaning respondents indicating support for the policy. It seems that such a measure might be progressive enough to affect real change, but conservative enough to earn the support of pro-gun advoates otherwise wary of infringing on individual rights.
While broad support for universal background checks among youth is not exclusive of support for the other gun control measures, support for other measures falls along partisan lines. According to HPOP data, 53 percent of respondents support an assault weapons ban and 41 percent support a mandatory buyback program. Among Democrats, these numbers are much higher: 72 percent support banning assault weapons and 57 percent favor a mandatory buyback program. By contrast, young Republicans do not support such proposals. 54 percent of those polled are opposed to banning assault weapons and 62 percent are against implementing a mandatory buyback program. This partisan split may reflect a reluctance among Republicans, who tend to speak more about gun rights than gun control, to support measures that might impose more serious limits on gun accessibility and ownership.
In light of such disparate support for gun control alternatives, it seems that the clearest appeal to youth voters when it comes to gun control policy is universal background checks. As support for other policies is so much more polarized, discussions regarding assault weapons bans and mandatory buybacks may be more contentious and unproductive relative to those about universal background checks.
Going into the 2020 election cycle, many of the Democratic candidates have expressed support for gun control measures that go beyond universal background checks. For example, Cory Booker has suggested a policy that would require all gun owners to obtain a license through the federal government, which several other candidates, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, also support. Some of the candidates have also come out in favor of implementing a ban on assault weapons.
While universal background checks have not been left out of the conversation entirely, they are not currently at the forefront of many candidates’ platforms. This focus, however, does not seem to reflect what would most appeal to the broadest possible contingent of youth voters, which may have electoral consequences.
Looking Ahead
The results of this semester’s HPOP polling suggest that young people recognize the importance of addressing gun violence, but few policy options attract a broad base of support. Universal background checks, however, garner support from young people across the ideological spectrum. Because they have such broad support, universal background checks have the potential to be implemented within the near future, suggesting that those who support more expansive policy measures may not want to overlook them when advocating for change.
By putting more controversial policies at the forefront of plans to reduce gun violence, as Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren have done, candidates may run the risk of alienating potential swing voters in the upcoming general election. Given the polarizing nature of the gun control debate, it may better serve candidates to focus on the one solution to gun violence that unites Democrats and Republicans, young and old, alike: universal background checks.
This article is part of a series analyzing data from the Harvard Public Opinion Project’s Fall 2019 Youth Poll. Other articles in the series can be found here, and the poll data can be found here.
Image Credit: Flickr / Marc Nozell