Gallup Poll: A Record 15% Want Less Strict Gun Laws

Last updated November 2026 · By Nick Hall, who tracks US gun ownership data and federal firearms policy for USA Gun Shop readers

Quick take: Gallup’s October poll found a record 15% of Americans now want gun sale laws made less strict, and for the first time in Gallup’s trend more Republicans favor looser laws (31%) than stricter ones (16%). The majority still points the other way, with 56% wanting stricter laws, down from 60% a year ago.

• What happened: Gallup published its annual gun poll on November 12, 2026, from phone interviews with 1,200 adults conducted October 1-19.
• The good news: 15% want the laws covering firearm sales made less strict, a Gallup high and three points above last year.
• The catch: 56% still want those laws stricter, and 54% back a ban on semi-automatic rifles, with 44% opposed.
• Who to watch: Republicans and independents, the two groups where support for stricter gun laws fell this year.

Gun owners have read the same Gallup headline every fall for years, and this one reads the same at the top. Read the tables underneath it, though. That is where this year’s story is.

Table of Contents

The Record 15% and What Gallup Actually Asked

Gallup has asked the same question since 1990: “In general, do you feel that the laws covering the sale of firearms should be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now?” This year, 56% said more strict, 27% said keep them as they are and 15% said less strict, according to Gallup’s November 12 report by Megan Brenan.

That 15% is the highest less-strict reading Gallup has recorded. The previous high was 14% in 2014, and last year it was 12%. Support for stricter laws slipped from 60% in 2025, matching the 2023 and 2024 readings, and it sits far below the 78% Gallup recorded in 1990.

Note the wording. The question is about laws covering the sale of firearms, so it measures appetite for new sales rules, not views on the Second Amendment itself.

The Republican Crossover Is the Real Headline

Here is the number I would put on the front page. Only 16% of Republicans now favor stricter gun laws, half want them kept as they are and 31% want them less strict. Gallup says this is “the first time in Gallup’s trend that more Republicans favor less strict gun laws over stricter ones.”

It is also the lowest Republican support for stricter laws and the highest for looser ones in the series. A year ago the split was 26% stricter to 25% less strict, close enough to call a tie.

Independents moved too. Their support for stricter laws fell from 63% last year to 54%, while 28% now want the laws unchanged and 16% want them less strict, which ties the highest independent reading in 25 years, matching 2009 and 2010. Democrats did not budge: 89% want stricter laws, 9% want them kept as they are and 1% want them less strict.

Put the party lines side by side and the gap is the widest in Gallup’s party trend, which runs back to 2001. Eighty-nine percent of Democrats against 16% of Republicans is a 73-point spread, and the next widest was 67 points in 2021.

The Part Gun Owners Won’t Like: 56% and a Rifle Ban at 54%

But no honest read of this poll calls it a country that wants looser gun laws. A majority still wants stricter ones, and women back stricter laws far more than men do, 65% to 45%.

Gallup also asked a half sample whether there should be “a ban on the manufacture, possession and sale of semi-automatic guns, known as assault rifles.” Fifty-four percent said yes and 44% said no. That is close to the 52% in 2024 and 55% in 2022, and below the 61% Gallup measured in 2019.

The party split on the ban is 75% of Democrats, 52% of independents and 28% of Republicans. Democratic support is down from 89% in 2022. Women favor a ban 70% to 36% for men, and 61% of adults 55 and older support one, against 43% of those 18 to 34.

A poll is not a law, and it is not a court ruling either. The question of whether AR-15 platform rifles are protected is in front of the Supreme Court right now, in Viramontes v. Cook County, No. 25-238, consolidated with Grant v. Higgins, and the Supreme Court docket has it set for argument on Wednesday, December 2, 2026.

The latest fight in that case is Cook County’s bid to have the justices ignore the challengers’ new AR-15 declarations.

Gun Ownership Holds Steady at 31%

The ownership numbers barely moved. Thirty-one percent of Americans say they personally own a gun, 12% say another household member owns one, and 43% report a gun in the household. Since 2000, Gallup’s averages are 30% for personal ownership and 43% for a gun in the home.

Republicans (47%) are more than twice as likely as Democrats (20%) to own a gun personally, with independents at 29%. Men own guns at twice the rate of women. For the wider picture, including how many guns are out there, see our US gun statistics hub.

One more number from the same survey. Forty percent of Americans say they are very or somewhat worried that they or a family member will become a victim of a mass shooting, below the 48% of August 2019.

What the Gallup Gun Poll Does and Doesn’t Tell You

Gallup ran the survey by phone through ReconMR from October 1 to 19, 2026, with a random sample of 1,200 adults in all 50 states and DC. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 points for the full sample, and the full topline and crosstabs put the half-sample questions, including the rifle ban, at plus or minus 5.

That matters for the headline number. A one-point record over 2014 is inside the margin of error, so I would not hang much on 15% versus 14% by itself. The Republican crossover is a different animal. A 31-to-16 split is fifteen points wide, and it comes after a year where the two were tied.

For buyers, a poll changes nothing at the counter. The rules are still the federal ones plus whatever your state adds, laid out in our US gun laws by state directory.

Fifty-six percent still want stricter laws. Fewer than last year, though. And among Republicans, the people asking for less now outnumber the people asking for more by almost two to one.

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