A Zogby International poll of 1,005 high school students found that about nine in ten teenagers support gun-control measures such as criminal background checks, with 79 percent of teenage women favoring stricter gun laws as compared with 52 percent of teenage men. A high percentage of teens also supported requiring a safety course and a license to purchase a handgun, and a whopping 96 percent of respondents favored registering weapons when purchased so that they could be traced if used in a crime.
Dennis Gilbert, a sociology professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY, who designed the survey with his students stated that, “American high school students have a shockingly high level of exposure to guns and gun violence.” A quarter of the respondents reported that someone they knew had been shot in a situation unrelated to military combat. The survey also found that more than 80 percent of students had discussed gun control at school, at home, or with their friends.
