Fears over gun violence have surged this year, overtaking opioids and the obesity epidemic as the top public health concern for everyday Americans, a new poll shows.
Researchers found that the share of people who rank gun violence as the top threat to the nation jumped by 9 percentage points between February and this month.
Meanwhile, the numbers who cite other dangers — including fentanyl, overeating, cancer, dangerous driving, and COVID-19 — has fallen.
The Axios-Ipsos survey of 1,095 adults comes after another shooting tragedy, when an 18-year-old high school student roamed through his northwestern New Mexico neighborhood on Monday, shooting randomly and killing three people.
Fears of gun violence have eclipsed other concerns over four months’ of deadly shootings

A girl runs as other shoppers leave with their hands up after police responded to a gunman who shot and killed eight people and wounded at least seven others at Allen Premium Outlets mall north of Dallas, Texas
Cliff Young, from the polling group Ipsos, said rising fears of guns ‘should not be a surprise’ given the ‘ongoing drumbeat of tragic mass shootings.’
There have been more than 200 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a monitoring group.
The group defines a mass shooting as one in which more than four people are injured or killed, either in homes or in public places, like the banks, shopping malls and schools that have been targeted this year.
Though the death toll appears to be shifting public attitudes, it remains unclear whether Republican politicians in Washington DC will get behind Democratic moves to tighten gun control.
Millions of gun owners say the Second Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees their right to bear arms and distrust lawmakers who seek restrictions.
Pollsters found that 26 percent of respondents said ‘access to guns or firearms’ was the top threat to public health.
That’s a marked increase from the 17 percent who said so in February.
Meanwhile, other concerns have ebbed or stayed level.
A quarter of respondents said opioids and fentanyl were the top danger.
Nearly 110,000 drug overdose deaths were recorded last year, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s a similar number to 2021, suggesting the opioid and fentanyl crisis has peaked and is starting to ebb.

A homless man taking drugs on a street in San Francisco. Concern about opioids is high but has dipped slightly

Worries about obesity and poor diets remain high, but have fallen a little this year

Campaigners have called for greater restrictions on guns, but there’s strong opposition to gun control from many Americans, who warn against restricting a right that’s enshrined in the US Constitution
Another fifth of survey respondents said obesity was the top danger.
COVID-19 slipped to the bottom of public health threats at 3 percent, tied with alcoholism, smoking and risky driving.
Republicans and Democrats agreed on a gun control law last summer and President Joe Biden has issued executive orders to increase background checks on gun buyers, but further measures appear unlikely.
The Minnesota Legislature this week passed a public safety bill with two major gun control measures, which Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, says he intends to sign into law.
Still, in Nevada, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo on Wednesday vetoed three Democratic-led gun control bills aimed at restricting who can obtain and own certain firearms.
Last month, research from health nonprofit KFF revealed how tragically common gun violence has become in America.
About a fifth of adults says they’ve been threatened with a firearm, and similar numbers say a family member has been either killed or injured by guns, including those who turn the weapons on themselves.
The KFF survey of 1,271 adults found that a majority (54 percent) have either personally or had a family member who had witnessed a shooting, or been threatened, injured or killed by a gun.
Most Americans (84 percent) have taken at least one precaution to protect themselves or their family from gun violence — including talking to relatives about gun violence, avoiding crowds and buying alternative weapons, such as a knife or pepper spray.

A survey by health nonprofit KFF lays bare just how common gun violence has become
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