Poll: Most back new gun, immigration laws

With a vote on gun control measures pending, 86 percent support extending background checks to gun sales at gun shows and online. Much smaller majorities support banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, 56 percent in each case, with the latter down from its peak, 65 percent in January, a month after the elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn…

More generally, the public by 55-38 percent rejects the concept that any new gun control laws by definition limit gun rights, and by 52-40 percent says a higher priority now should be enacting new laws to try to reduce gun violence, rather than protecting the right to own guns…

On immigration, Americans by nearly 2-1, 63-33 percent, support a program giving undocumented immigrants a path to legal status. That reflects a sharp change in the past five years, from essentially an even split on the issue, 49-46 percent, in late 2007. (Another question, posing a “path to citizenship,” found 57 percent support late last month.)