AP Poll Shows Dems Not As Worried
About Threat to Gun Rights They Don't Value
Click to view larger image
By Dan Zimmerman. June 22, 2026
Data Source
Our friends at the Associated Press have polled about 2500 Americans in an effort to take their collective temperature on the level of security they feel in some of their most fundamental civil rights, They include freedom of speech, religion, voting rights and — you guessed it — the right to keep and bear arms.
The non-news here is that the Democrats who were polled are largely dismissive of any perceived threats to their gun rights in the current climate while Republicans surveyed in the AP-NORC America 250 poll were less sanguine. Of course, you'd expect those who find less value in the right to keep and bear arms to be less worried about efforts to limit that right.
And for those of you who haven't been paying attention, those efforts are alive and well and progressing in almost all of the usual suspect states. According the Grok's AI gnome miners, here's a selection of anti-gun measures enacted in the last year or so
California:
- Banned the sale of GLOCK pistols
- Required sale/transfer records to include purchaser acknowledgment of confirming possession of all owned firearms in the last 30 days
- Expanded definition of "firearm" for lost or stolen reporting to include frames, receivers, and parts
- Required annual training (with exam) for licensed gun dealers and employees handling firearms
- Required dealers to provide a state-designed pamphlet on the risks of gun ownership
Colorado:
- "Assault weapons" ban
Illinois:
- Safe gun storage mandate and
- Penalties for failing to report lost or stolen guns within 48 hours
Rhode Island:
- Signed an "assault weapons" ban into law
New York:
- Mandated "censorware" for 3D printers to prevent printing guns
- Criminalized possession of 3D-printed gun files
Washington:
- Mandated new permit to purchase a firearm requirement with mandated safety training and fingerprinting
- Enacted a series of requirements on gun retailers including annual reporting, liability insurance minimums and security system mandates including 24/7 monitoring
Oregon:
- Bump stock ban
- Expanded "sensitive places" carry ban locations
Virginia:
- "Assault weapons" ban
- "High capacity" magazine ban
- Safe storage mandate
- Gun industry "nuisance" law liability
- Universal background checks
- Expanded "sensitive places" carry ban
Maine:
- Enacted red flag confiscation law
Massachusetts:
- New firearm registration mandate
That's only a partial list of what's become law in the last year or so and doesn't include bills in process such as…more 3D printer censorware mandates, weakening the PLCAA, GLOCK bans, "assault weapons" confiscation and suppressor bans. Oh, and there's also a (likely doomed) move by Democrats at the federal level to ban the sale of suppressors, too.
So despite an administration that has made some important strides in rolling back regulations and advancing gun rights in the last two-plus years and a Supreme Court that takes an expansive view of individuals' Second Amendment rights, it shouldn't really be a mystery why that AP-NORC poll found Republicans more worried about threats to their gun rights than Democrats. Same as it ever was.
