Crime Prevention Research Center’s Commissioned Survey on ‘Gun Violence’ Results

The Crime Prevention Research Center has been conducting fantastic research for years. Not too long ago we covered CPRC’s 2024 “CCW Report.” They commissioned a survey earlier this month and questioned 1,000 Americans who participated in the general election. The question asked had to do with what would do more to help fight crime, rather than pin the topic to just so-called “gun violence.” The CPRC’s results are in and they tell an important story.

The CPRC commissioned a new survey by McLaughlin & Associates of 1,000 general election American voters. Despite all the claims about support for gun control, only 19% of voters think passing more gun control will reduce crime, slightly more (21%) think stricter enforcement of existing gun control. Taken together that means 40% of voters think that gun control has something to do with reducing crime. Normally surveys only give voters those two options. But voters think arresting criminals and keeping them in jail is much more important with 54% of voters taking that stand.

Considering the results of the survey, we’re looking at a much more “law and order” type of American. That’s in contrast to, as is noted in CPRC’s explanation that the “bias with the existing surveys, which limit answers to more gun control or enforcing gun control, is that they make it seem that the only options for reducing crime involve gun control.”

The 54% of respondents to the CPRC survey think that keeping criminals in jail is the most effective means to help fight crime over gun control is important. Would this mean that the same people would be in favor of or not in favor of defunding the police? A pile of salient questions could be asked, if done the right way, and the answers would more than likely buck the narratives told and pushed by progressive policymakers.

In CPRC’s methodology, they presented the question differently than a conventional binary, or either/or approach. In coming up with a comparison, CPRC quotes a recent Rasmussen survey. It was said that the “survey [was] conducted virtually at the same time (December 17-19) on a similar set of voters and asked the question the traditional way.”

The Rasmussen survey asked the following question, “Which would do more to reduce gun violence in America, passing new gun control laws or stricter enforcement of existing gun control laws?”

The results differed from CPRC’s as “56% of people preferred more strictly enforcing existing laws, and 31% wanted to pass more gun control laws– both percentages are much higher than when respondents have the option of arresting criminals and keeping them in jail.”

Another question that Rasmussen asked was, “Police say a 15-year-old girl shot and killed two people and wounded six others at a school in Wisconsin this week. Would stricter gun control laws help prevent shootings like the recent one in Wisconsin?”

In response to that question, it was said that 50% of voters said that stricter gun control would help prevent such events from occurring. The numbers in support of stricter gun control is up from a similar survey in 2023 after the Lewiston, Maine shooting, which was 44% at that time.

A third question from the Rasmussen survey found that 41% of the respondents blame mental health for so-called “mass shootings.”

Crime Prevention Research Center made the following observation:

Looking at the cross tabs shows that only Democrats, liberals, and people who voted for Democrat congressional candidates supported more gun control laws. People who live in all parts of the country, both men and women, all racial groups, and urban, suburban, and rural all support higher arrest rates and keeping criminals in jail.

There was overwhelming support for more “gun control” from Democrats in the Rasmussen survey results. 49% said passing new laws would help cut down on gun violence.

There’s a science to asking these kinds of questions. Rasmussen has been in this business for a lot of years. However, when approaching these kinds of topics, the questions need to be asked the correct way. If respondents are painted into a corner where they’re given very narrow options, these are the kinds of results that we can expect. Getting a counter visual on the temperature via the question that CPRC asked tells a more complete story.

We appreciate the great work from the Crime Prevention Research Center and invite you to learn more about them at: CrimeResearch.org