Many Republicans support gun control, despite the partisan divide that is generally believed to exist between them and Democrats, according to a Washington Post analysis of General Social Survey data.
Since 1972, a majority of Republicans have supported a law that would require a police permit before anyone can purchase a gun. Partisan differences emerged during the presidency of Barack Obama, according to analyst Steven V. Miller, a Clemson University political science assistant professor.
Even among men who own guns and identified themselves in the survey as strong Republicans, support for police permits for gun purchasing was around 50-50, Miller reported.
While the idea that those in the South are less supportive of gun control, the analysis showed that a more decisive decline in Republican support for gun control came in the Northeast since 1994.
The most pronounced division between Republicans and Democrats on the gun control issue is in the West and the Midwest, according to Miller's analysis.
A solution to address the partisan division over gun control could be linking gun control to police, which is generally a public institution that most people trust, according to a Gallup poll.
If the police issued gun permits instead of "the government" in general, at least some Americans would be more in favor of such controls, the Post analysis suggested.
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