Although much of the rhetoric behind gun control appears partisan, the poll found that the support for expanded background checks is in fact bipartisan, showing 88 percent of Democrats and 79 percent of Republicans in favor of this gun policy.

Kim also lamented how easy it is to purchase weapons online, before sending her thoughts and prayers to the family of the victims. Conservative Republicans have already introduced bills to eviscerate or repeal I-594.

Nearly identical shares of Republicans (81 percent) and Democrats (79 percent) support laws to prevent the mentally ill from buying guns.

Eighty-eight percent of Democrats said they would favor the expansion while 79 percent of Republicans said the same.

Similarly, according to an Economist/YouGov poll published Monday, 83 percent of gun owners surveyed favored laws that prevent the mentally ill from buying guns.

A smaller but still significant majority of 57 percent of respondents said they would favor a law that would outright ban assault-style weapons. 85 percent of Democrats favor this database, compared with only 55 percent of Republicans.

Pew Research Center said little has changed from the last survey, which was done shortly after the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

“While there is broad support for several specific gun policy proposals – and opinion on these measures has not changed significantly since 2013 – the public continues to be more evenly divided in fundamental attitudes about whether it is more important to control gun ownership or to protect the right of Americans to own guns”, Pew said of the findings.

Breaking those numbers down, 71 percent of Republicans believe protecting gun rights is more important, while 73 percent of Democrats believe controlling gun ownership is more important.