Background Checks and Waiting Periods

Key Point Summary

Background checks are the most firmly supported gun-policy proposal in this report. The American public's support for background checks prior to gun purchases is consistently high, stable, and broad-based across surveys and question wording differences.

  • Americans provide near-consensus support across surveys for universal background checks for all gun buyers—including purchases at gun shows, in private sales, and online sales.
  • Americans also strongly support mandatory waiting periods prior to gun purchases across multiple surveys, though not at the same near-unanimous level as background checks.
  • Background checks for ammunition buyers receive substantial majority support.
  • Proposals to shorten waiting periods draw clear opposition, consistent with the broader preference for maintaining or strengthening existing safeguards rather than reducing them.

Bottom line: Americans' strong support for universal background checks and, to a slightly lesser degree, waiting periods before gun purchases, is consistent in terms of breadth, stability, and cross-survey agreement.

Availability of Data and Confidence in Conclusions

Overall, this assessment draws on 14 unique questions from 9 nationally representative surveys conducted between June 2022 and November 2023, with a combined sample size of 14,867. The main limitation in available data on this issue is the absence of survey questions fielded from 2024 through 2026. The consistency of the existing evidence from 2022 and 2023, however, makes a major shift in public opinion appear unlikely. The evidence base is both substantial and unusually consistent. Multiple surveys produced highly similar results using varied question wordings, and support for universal background checks remained exceptionally stable across repeated measurements. Nearly every item points in the same direction, with the only notable variation coming from a reverse-framed question about shortening waiting periods, which also supports the broader conclusion by showing majority opposition.

Overall Confidence: GOOD.

Policy Implications

Near-universal support for enacting or strengthening background check requirements across multiple surveys and question wordings suggests little political risk from a public-opinion standpoint for policymakers who advocate such policies. This is one of the few gun-policy measures for which policymakers can operate within the context of a strong, and in some cases near-universal, public consensus.

Policies addressing waiting periods for gun purchases are also well within the boundaries of public consensus. Although support is not as close to unanimous as it is for universal background checks, the majority of Americans appear to view waiting periods as a reasonable precaution and a natural companion policy to broader screening requirements.

Detailed Discussion

Questions about background checks produce some of the highest positive responses of any gun-policy proposal reviewed in this report.

Americans overwhelmingly favor background checks for all gun buyers, attitudes that show striking stability across time and across surveys.

  • A 2022 survey showed 92% of adults supported requiring background checks for all gun sales [1], and a 2023 survey found 92% of registered voters supported the same [2].
  • Other surveys show similar responses, including 88% of registered voters favored requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers, including at gun shows and in private sales. [1, 2. 3, 4, 5].
  • Support remains very high when the question is framed as a federal universal background check law, including one 2022 survey with 85% of adults in favor of such a policy, and a comparable 2023 survey finding 79% in favor [6, 7].
  • An executive order requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers received 74% approval among registered voters [8] .

Americans also strongly support legal requirements for a waiting period prior to gun purchases:

  • Multiple surveys conducted in both 2022 and 2023 measuring reactions to a 30-day waiting period for all gun purchases showed support from over three quarters of those interviewed [3, 4, 5].
  • A reverse-framed question wording points in the same direction: 69% of adults opposed shortening waiting periods for people seeking to buy guns legally [9].

The same attitudes pertain to background checks for ammunition:

  • A 2022 survey found that 80% of registered voters favored requiring background checks on anyone buying bullets and ammunition, compared with 17% opposed [4].

Bottom line: The American public views background checks less as a controversial restriction on gun ownership and more as a basic safeguard. Waiting periods appear to be understood similarly as a reasonable precaution within the purchasing process.

Impact of Question Wording and Other Survey Factors

Support for universal background checks shows very little sensitivity to question wording.

Surveys variously ask about "requiring background checks for all gun buyers," "criminal background checks on all gun buyers including at gun shows and private sales," or a "specific executive order requiring broader checks".

The public's responses are similar across all these wordings, showing overwhelming support, generally with positive responses as high as the mid-80s to low-90s. There is a small dip in support for background checks when a midpoint ("neither favor nor oppose") is offered, but the consistency across question formats distinguishes background checks from more wording-sensitive areas of gun policy.

Support is marginally lower when questions move from universal background checks to related safeguards such as waiting periods or ammunition checks, but the direction of opinion remains unchanged. Waiting periods and background checks for ammunition buyers both draw strong majority support.

Americans expressed majority opposition to a question framed in the deregulatory direction ("shortening waiting periods").

Trends Over Time

The available data from 2022 through 2023 show remarkable stability in these attitudes towards background checks. Across repeated measures and survey organizations, support for universal background checks remains overwhelmingly high, and support for waiting periods remains consistently strong. There is no indication that support for either policy has eroded over time through the periods for which data are available.

  • Universal background checks remain exceptionally popular across all available measurements. In June 2022, multiple surveys found 88% to 92% support among both adults and registered voters, depending on the exact wording [1, 3, 4]. An August 2022 survey found 85% of adults in favor of a federal universal background check law [6].
  • The same pattern continued in 2023. 74% of registered voters approved of an executive order requiring broader background checks in March 2023, 87% of registered voters favored requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers in April 2023, and 79% of adults favored a federal universal background check law in August 2023 [5, 7, 8].
  • The strongest evidence of stability comes from repeated identical wording. A question asking about requiring background checks for all gun buyers received 92% support among American adults in June 2022 and 92% support among registered voters when the question was asked again in October 2023 [1, 2].
  • Public attitudes about waiting periods were similarly stable. A 30-day waiting period for all gun purchases received 77% support among adults in June 2022 and 77% support among registered voters again in April 2023 [3, 4, 5].

A limitation in assessing trends in public opinion on this issue is the lack of data from surveys conducted in recent years. The consistency of data for those years in which data are available, however, suggests a high probability that support has remained high in more recent years.

Citations

  1. Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. (2022). Nearly 3 Out Of 4 Support Raising Legal Age To Buy Any Gun, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Support For Assault Weapons Ban Hits A Low. Fielded 6/3/22-6/6/22. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  2. Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. (2023). 84% Of Voters Concerned The U.S. Will Be Drawn Into Military Conflict In The Middle East, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Concern About Prejudice Against Jewish People In U.S. Hits Record High. Fielded 10/26/23-10/30/23. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  3. Gallup Organization. (2022). Public Pressure for Gun Legislation Up After Shootings. Fielded 6/1/22-6/20/22. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  4. Fox News/Beacon Research/Shaw & Co. Research. (2022). More voters put trust in Republicans to handle inflation, crime. Fielded 6/10/22-6/13/22. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  5. Fox News/Beacon Research/Shaw & Co. Research. (2023). Two-thirds say abortion pill should be legal. Fielded 4/21/23-4/24/23. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  6. Associated Press/NORC at the University of Chicago/University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy/AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (2022). About 1 in 5 Americans say gun violence has touched their lives and even more fear being a victim. Fielded 7/28/22-8/1/22. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  7. Associated Press/AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (2023). GOP support for gun restrictions slips a year after Congress passed firearms law. Fielded 8/10/23-8/14/23. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  8. Fox News/Beacon Research/Shaw & Co. Research. (2023). Top 5 takeaways on Biden's economy problems. Fielded 3/24/23-3/27/23. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  9. Pew Research Center/Ipsos. (2023). Gun Violence Widely Viewed as a Major – and Growing – National Problem. Fielded 6/5/23-6/11/23. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
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