Level of Public Support for Gun Control Measures

While gun control measures are probably some of the most controversial political issues in the United States, it seems that many Americans would indeed support measures that would put a check on what types of weapons and to whom weapons should be sold. Of course, some measures are deemed to be more effective than others in preventing mass shootings.

The New York Times asked some experts in the field of criminology, public health and law to rank such measures, and in a second step asked the general public to give their views on which measures might help. Most of the answers are pretty common sense. For example 85 percent of respondents agree that barring sales of weapons to all violent criminals is a step in to the right direction in aiming to reduce the number of mass shootings. But also, universal checks get the thumbs-up from the public.

However, this list doesn't take in to account how feasible these measures really are. While you can bar all violent criminals by law to carry weapons, this measure is still likely to fail in the real world, as there are enough weapons out there for criminal minded folks to get hold of, and criminal minded people don't have a reputation to selectively stick to any particular laws.