Americans split on whether average person should be trusted with firearms: Survey

Americans are almost equally divided on whether the average person should be trusted with firearms, according to a new survey.

The YouGov survey found 43 percent of respondents said the average American could be trusted with a gun, while 42 percent said they could not. Another 15 percent of respondents said they were not sure.

Gun owners were more likely to say that the average person could be trusted with a firearm, with about 72 percent saying so. Another 17 percent of gun owners said the average person cannot be trusted with a gun, while 12 percent said they were not sure.

Republicans were also more likely than Democrats to trust the average person with a gun. Nearly three-quarters of surveyed Republicans said they would trust the average American with a firearm, while just 24 percent of Democrats said the same.

The poll found that about 25 percent of respondents, including 40 percent of Republicans, were gun owners.

It found that most surveyed Americans believe that gun ownership should be legal in all or most cases. Nineteen percent said it should be illegal in most cases, while 8 percent said it should be in all cases.

Most Americans would support a required waiting period for a gun purchase, the poll found. Nearly 70 percent also said they would support raising the age limit required to purchase a gun and requiring people to undergo a psychological evaluation before buying a firearm.

The poll was conducted among 1,159 U.S. citizens on April 26-29. The margin of error is about 4 percentage points for the entire sample.

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