The Missouri legislature is full of pro-gun, anti-gun control, keep-your-hands-off-my-guns GOP proposals this season -- everything from a bill to stop Obama to legislation criminalizing lawmakers who even suggest gun control. In this climate, Democrats' gun bills are getting nowhere.
But that doesn't mean there's not support for them. At least that's the message of Representative Stacey Newman, a Democrat who, alongside others in the state pushing for stricter gun policies, is promoting a poll this week that says most of Missourians favor universal background checks.
"This is good news," Newman tells Daily RFT. "Even here in Missouri, just like the rest of the country, people want common-sense policies."
How many people support background checks for all sales?
The poll, from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national coalition promoting stricter gun policy, says that 85 percent of Missouri residents want gun buyers to pass a criminal background check.
As we've reported, Newman has proposed a bill this session that would eliminate a loophole in background checks in the state, similar to initiatives around the country. Currently, licensed dealers must submit paperwork, but private sales, one that happen online for example, don't require these criminal checks.
"We know that on the national level, 90 percent of gun owners...support this," she says. "Everybody says, 'But what about Missouri?'"
This latest research, she argues, makes it clear most residents are on board.
Pollster Doug Schoen, of Schoen LLC, polled 600 Missouri voters between February 18 and 21 and the results, a news release notes, have a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
Continue for more details on the poll and the full announcement.
