A quarter of Americans now believe that guns are the number one threat to public health, according to a new survey.
According the US Axios/Ipsos health index, 26% of Americans believe that access to guns is the number one threat to public health. About 25% believe that opioids and fentanyl are the main concern.
Concerns about access to firearms are growing. In February, only 17% of Americans listed access to guns as a top concern, ipsos reported.
African-Americans, Democrats, and people in urban communities are most concerned about access to guns. In the Axios/Ipsos poll, 49% of African-Americans, 50% of Democrats, and 31% of people living in urban areas cited access to firearms as their top concern.
There have been several mass shootings this year, occurring in schools, shopping malls, and hospitals.
In Buffalo, New York and uvalde, texascommunities are still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s mass shootings.
Last May, a white gunman killed 10 people on Buffalo’s East Side, a predominantly black neighborhood. The gunman was arrested.
Ten days later, 19 students and two teachers were murdered in a primary school in Uvalde. The gunman was killed by the police.
The United States is on track to set a record for annual mass murders, which the nonprofit Archive of Gun Violence defines as murders in which the death toll is four or more, not including the perpetrator. The total is expected to reach 60 this year, up from 36 in 2022 and 28 in 2021.
Just 3% of Americans in the Axios/Ipsos poll named Covid-19 as their top public health concern, up from 6% in February. Three in five Americans believe the pandemic is over.
The World Health Organization announced this month that the pandemic is no longer a global health emergency.