Results from Iowa Poll #248 revealed that most Iowans approved of a strict federal handgun control law but were less likely to approve of banning handguns for private citizens. Data from Iowa Poll #248, a random sample survey of 1011 Iowans in April of 1981 was recently restored by students in IPOL. The survey took place just weeks after an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. 

When asked about handgun registrations, most surveyed Iowans favored strict federal laws. When respondents were asked if they would favor or oppose a “strict federal handgun control law providing registration and licensing of all handguns”, 56.9% of survey takers reported that they would favor such a law. 39.7% said that they would oppose such a law. 3.4% of the respondents had no opinion. When divided by sex, more women approved of a strict federal handgun law than men. 65.7% of women approved and 30.5% of women disapproved, compared to 47.4% of men who approved and 49.7% of men who disapproved. 

When asked, “Do you think a strict federal handgun control law would or would not provide greater safety for U.S. presidents?” most respondents did not believe that strict federal handgun control laws would increase safety. The “would not” responses accounted for 68.5% of the sample, compared to 28.4% who responded that such laws “would” provide greater safety; only 3.1% of respondents were unsure. Views in urban areas, such as towns, cities, and metropolitan regions, were nearly identical, differing by just 1.2 percentage points on the “would” side and 1.8 points on the “would not” side. In contrast, rural respondents living on farms diverged sharply from their urban counterparts, registering 10.1 to 11.9 percentage points higher for the “would not” position. A similar divide appeared across sex: men were 17.7 percentage points more likely than women to believe that handgun control would not increase presidential safety. 

When asked, “Do you think it should be legal or illegal for private citizens to own handguns?” 75.6% of Iowans believed it should be legal for private citizens to own a handgun. However, 19.6% of those asked believed that private citizens owning a handgun should be illegal, whereas 4.8% of people were unsure about the matter. When analyzed with the party affiliation of respondents, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents had similar opinions. 75.4% of Republicans, 75.3% of Democrats, and 76.8% of Independents believed that handguns should be legal for private citizens. 

Iowa Poll #248, conducted by the Des Moines Register, was administered to a random sample of Iowans in April 1981. In addition to the questions about handguns, the survey asked respondents their opinions on a wide variety of topics, including the recent assassination attempt on President Reagan, personal finances, school spending, smoking habits, and the U.S. response to a hypothetical invasion of Poland by the Soviet Union. Understanding Iowans’ past opinions on these topics can help us understand how perspectives have changed and what ideas have remained popular. IPOL has also been working with UI Libraries and the Des Moines Register to restore data from dozens of Iowa Polls from the 1960s to early 1980s. More information about the project can be found here. We are working to release a full report on our findings as we analyze additional questions.