Will Tucson Shooting Spark a Call for Tougher Gun Laws? ... Polls and History Indicate Tucson Shooting Will Not Change American Attitudes Toward Gun Control ... But will the tragedy in Tucson change public opinion on gun control and bring a call for stricter laws? Polling and history indicate no. American support for stricter gun laws has steadily declined. A Gallup poll from last October reported that 44 percent of Americans said that gun laws should be tougher, a dramatic drop from 1990, when 78 percent of Americans said they supported stricter gun control. "The very substantial majority of Americans believe that the Constitution does provide for the right of gun ownership in this country, and most Americans don't believe that availability of guns is the prime factor in gun violence," said Gary Langer, of Langer Research Associates, and ABC's longtime polling director. Heinous rampages like the one in Columbine in 1999 and at Virginia Tech in 2007 did little to change public opinion on the issue. No significant increase in the call for new gun laws followed these massacres. – ABC News

Dominant Social Theme: Ban guns. Ban them now. Ban all of them. They encourage violence.