Sunday’s massacre at an LGBT nightclub has Americans split largely down ideological lines over what the deadliest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 represents, according to the results of the latestGallup poll released Friday.
Overall, 48 percent of Americans surveyed attributed the attack that killed 49 people in Orlando, Florida, as an “act of Islamic terrorism,” while 41 percent said it was “domestic gun violence” and 6 percent said it was both of them in equal measure.
The split is predictably partisan: 60 percent of self-identified Democrats said they saw it more as an act of gun violence, compared with 29 percent who saw it as Islamic terrorism and 7 percent who saw it as both. For Republicans, the difference is even more stark — in the opposite direction. Nearly eight in 10 Republicans, 79 percent, called the shooting predominantly a terrorist act, while only 16 percent said it was an incident of domestic gun violence and a mere 1 percent said it could be categorized as both. Independents were essentially equal in their assessment, with 44 percent mostly viewing the Orlando shooting as terrorism and 42 percent as gun violence, while 9 percent said both labels would apply.
But the survey also honed in on several emerging areas of national consensus. In terms of preventing future attacks like Orlando, 80 percent of all Americans said banning people on terrorism watch lists from buying guns would be effective, while 67 percent said increased airstrikes against Islamic State targets would be effective. Roughly the same share of people surveyed — 64 percent — said they would support changing state gun laws to allow more people to carry concealed weapons if they pass a background check and complete training. Another 63 percent said passing new laws to make it harder to buy assault weapons would be “very or somewhat” effective.
Seen as less effective: a ban on Muslim immigration to the U.S., similar to the one advocated by presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, which about only one in three — 32 percent — said would be “very or somewhat effective,” as well as 25 percent who said that requiring all Muslims, including U.S. citizens, should carry a special ID.
The poll was conducted June 14-15 via landlines and cellphones, surveying a random sample of 1,021 adults nationwide with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Among the 319 Democrats, 311 Republicans and 349 independents surveyed, the margin of error is plus or minus 7 percentage points.