With mass shootings becoming a regular occurrence in the United States and gun control efforts largely stalled in government, it’s worth dissecting which Americans support gun control measures, and how they affiliate religiously — or don’t.

To determine this, Ryan Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, has analyzed data from the 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), a national survey with 60,000 respondents.

The gun control portion of the study can be broken down into three parts: whether respondents want potential gun owners to have a background check, whether they want a ban on assault weapons, and whether they think it should be easier to obtain a concealed-carry permit.

The first measure—requiring background checks wherever a gun might be purchased—has broad support among both religious and nonreligious Americans, as evidenced by Burge’s chart. In fact, the support is overwhelming even among the most religiously conservative groups, such as white evangelicals and Mormons.

From a social […]