Voters say they view terrorism, not guns, as the main issue behind the San Bernardino shooting, according to a new poll released this week from Rasmussen Reports.
Nearly three-quarters of likely U.S. voters -- 69 percent -- said they view terrorism, not guns, as the primary issue behind this month’s mass shooting which left 14 people dead and 21 injured. Twenty percent said the primary issue was gun control. Seven percent said something else was the issue, while only four percent said they weren’t sure.
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, opened fire on a San Bernardino County Department of Public Health training event and holiday party of 80 employees on Dec. 2. It was later revealed Farook and Malik had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
President Barack Obama later called the incident an act of terrorism.
Sixty-five percent of voters identified the two shooters in the San Bernardino incident, while nearly one-third of voters -- 28 percent -- say they aren’t sure.
Outcry erupted following the shooting, with politicians rallying to call for tougher gun control laws. Democrats have seized on the issue, saying the U.S. needs to work harder at making guns more difficult to obtain in order to prevent further gun violence. Clinton and other Democrats have made gun issues as pivotal parts of their 2016 presidential campaigns.
“The epidemic of gun violence knows no boundaries,” Clinton said in a recent ad condemning gun violence. “How many people have to die before we actually act, before we come together as a nation?”
Clinton even vowed to take on the National Rifle Association, a gun rights group which is often at the forefront of national gun issues. The NRA was quick to condemn stricter gun laws as a way to solve gun violence, saying even states like California, where gun control laws are strict, still have incidents of mass gun violence.
“The fact remains that California has already adopted President Obama’s gun control wish list: ‘universal’ background checks, registration, waiting periods, gun bans, magazine bans and an expansion of prohibited gun categories,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. “But those laws did nothing to prevent this horrific crime from taking place. Nothing.”
On Thursday, a White House aide said President Barack Obama was working on an executive order to expand background checks on gun purchases, but it’s uncertain how long the order would take to complete.
