July 17th, 2018, Jamie Ballard
Democrats were nearly evenly split on whether or not an FBI agent who accidentally discharged his weapon in a nightclub should be allowed to continue carrying his service weapon
Last month, an FBI agent was dancing at a nightclub when he dropped his gun and it fired, injuring a bystander. A judge recently ruled that the agent will be allowed to continue carrying his service weapon, which is a decision that 42% of Americans agree with, according to new data from YouGov.
Republicans were about 20% more likely than Democrats to say that the agent should be allowed to carry his gun again. Democrats were nearly evenly split, with 37% saying the agent should be allowed to carry his weapon again, compared to 39% who said he should not. One-third (33%) of independent voters said he should not be allowed to carry his weapon again, while 41% in this group said he should be allowed.
There are also some interesting patterns associated with age. Forty percent of 18-24 year olds and 25-34 year olds said the agent should not be allowed to continue carrying his weapon. But older people were less likely to share this opinion. The 55+ age group was the least likely to say the agent shouldn’t have a weapon: only 26% chose this response, compared to over half (52%) who said he should.
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Image: Getty