Guns are the #1 Voting Issue and Concern for Women
According to our most recent poll, guns are the number one concern among women voters in 2024. Half of women say guns are a “dealbreaker” issue and won’t support a candidate who doesn’t agree with them. 63% of liberals say the issue is a dealbreaker, compared to 45% of conservatives and 41% of moderates. This makes guns a particularly important issue for them. This is also an important issue for young women, 58% say it’s a dealbreaker for them.
Despite the importance of the issue, only 15% of liberal women think politicians listen to them a lot on this issue, compared to 25% of liberal men.And despite the visibility of young people in the gun policy debate, only 12% of 18-29 year olds say politicians listen to them a lot on guns.
In general, over half of women (55%) say politicians don’t listen to them on guns. Across party lines, Democratic (14%), Republican (13%), and Independent women (14%) are in agreement about how much politicians listen to them on the issue.
Women Believe Mass Shootings are More Likely than Gun Control
We found Democratic and Independent women are more likely to think mass shootings would happen (59% and 55% very+somewhat likely) compared to Republican women (35%), which may drive the partisan divide. Women think it is more likely that a mass shooting will happen near them than restrictions on gun purchases. Men think both of those things are about equally likely.
While white women and women of color think mass shootings in their area are equally likely (about 50%), women of color are more worried about they or their family being the victim of gun violence (30% to 24%). Perhaps growing up under mandatory lockdown drills and increased numbers of school shootings, young women are also especially fearful. 56% say a mass shooting is likely, and 39% say they or their family will be victims of gun violence.
There is a Gender Divide Around Some Gun Policies
Men and women differ slightly on guns overall. Women are more supportive of restrictions on guns, but a majority of men also support restrictions. Women of color are the most supportive of restricting people under 21 from purchasing guns and restricting certain firearms.
There is majority support across party lines for age restrictions on gun purchases and “red flag” laws. Republican men and women are divided on restricting the purchases of certain types of firearms. 61% of Republican women support restricting the ability to purchase certain types of guns but only 41% of Republican men say the same. Despite the failures of many recent gun control efforts, our data indicates a possible common ground for legislation.
Poll Methodology
Echelon Insights conducted this survey on behalf of All In Together to examine voters’ attitudes toward current issues and politics. The survey was fielded online from May 8-10, 2023 in English among a sample of 1,277 voters in the Likely Electorate (LV) nationwide. The base sample was 856 voters in the Likely Electorate and an additional oversample of 421 women to achieve a total of 836 women respondents in the sample, using non-probability sampling.
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All In Together is one of the leading resources of comprehensive polling and research on women voters and policy. View more of our past polling, and learn more about our other research and resources.
For questions or information about the data, please contact All In Together’s Director of Research Priya at pelangovan@aitogether.org. For all media inquiries about the data, please contact Kate at DKC news at allintogether@dkcnews.com.
