steps that gun control advocates want to take. it doesn t mean people think eliminating access to guns is going to completely eliminate the problem of gun violence in the u.s., but they think these are steps worth taking. two thirds of the country in polling just this week as well as last year, so not necessarily influenced by immediate events, supports a ban on assault weapons. roughly two thirds supports a ban on high capacity magazines. these ideas are supported not only by a majority of democrats including democratic gun owners but also supported, michael, by a majority of republicans who don t own guns. the only kind of large group in the country that opposes these ideas are republican gun owners. and yet what has happened is as the republican party broadly speaking in the trump era has grown more dependent on rural and small town areas, more dependent on the most culturally conservative voters, the nra has essentially won the argument in
a slaughter in nova scotia in 2020 spurred opponents to say those laws don t work, but again, gun control advocates notice a downward trend in gun deaths over the past 20 years. we know other countries in response to one mass shooting have been able to craft laws that almost eliminated mass shootings. reporter: after 51 people were killed in new zealand in 2019 by australian gunman who targeted mosques, the government, in six days, went after military-style semi automatic weapons, high capacity magazines and more. every semi-automatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on friday will be banned in this country. reporter: and the prime minister said just this week, they are not done. there are still obviously guns misused in new zealand, so i won t sit here and say that our system is perfect.
and foremost i would love to live in a country that has fewer guns than it does right now, but i also know that things like anti-bullying programs need more fun funding. social, emotional, education and awareness in schools, these are all things that schools can be doing even if we can t get sweeping gun reform. yeah. it s a good point because so often after the fact you hear of warning signs for the students who carry out these kinds of things, not always but sometimes you hear from gun advocates that the solution is arm the teachers, put a gun in your hands. what s your reaction? teachers are very used to being told what is best for them and to me that sounds like a policy that was written without
a slaughter in nova so much that in 2020 spurred opponents to say those laws don t work but, again, gun control advocates note an overall downward trend in gun deaths over the past 20 years. we know that other countries in response to one mass shooting have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings. reporter: after 51 people were killed in new zealand in 2019 by an australian gunman who targeted masks, the government in six days went after military-style semiautomatic weapons, high-capacity magazines and more. every semiautomatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on friday will be banned in this country. reporter: and the prime minister said just this week, they are not done. there s still obviously guns that are misused in new zealand so i won t sit here and say that our system is perfect, but we
believe, you re right, you re right, that they are having conversations and for some people at home who want an assault weapons ban or the age raised, you re not going to get that, not from the congress. maybe some states will move on this. the question is what are the possibilities? or will they talk for a few days and say never mind, we can t agree like every time? we ll have passed the prologue, and we should not really expect much to happen, because these conversations the end to break down. they have in the past repeatedly. even when people thought after sandy hook that congress was going to be able to do this, they fell short, again, and at that time biden was vice president and was a part of those negotiations. this time around, we re seeing biden as president take more of a step back and he s not really engaging heavily in the conversations that are happening right now on the hill. he wants to give those lawmakers like murphy and cornyn space, and you know, i ve been hearing