Americans Think Heated Rhetoric May Cause Violence, New Poll Shows

By Rachel Christiansen

The majority of Americans believe that heated political rhetoric may lead unstable people to commit acts of violence, according to new polling data released Friday by Quinnipiac University. 

According to the poll’s results, 52% of those surveyed said such rhetoric could ignite shootings like the one that occurred over the weekend in Arizona in which six people were killed and dozens more, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), were critically injured. Recently discovered evidence shows that the alleged gunman in the case, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, is likely mentally ill.

However, only 15% of those polled blamed the shootings directly on unusually angry and aggressive political discourse. In addition, 40% of those surveyed said that nothing could have prevented the shootings from taking place.

“Americans seem to be rejecting the blame game for the Arizona shooting. By far, the largest number thinks this tragedy could not have been prevented,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University.

36 percent of those polled said liberals are responsible for heated political rhetoric, while 32 percent held conservatives more liable. 23 percent of respondents attributed Loughner’s alleged actions to a “failure of the mental health systems.”

Following up on that, only nine percent said they thought lax gun control laws were the reason behind the shootings. 

In light of Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, several questions were asked regarding race relations in the United States, with 64 percent of those polled saying that they think current race relations are “good.”

When asked if the United States is a safer place for public figures now compared to when Martin Luther King Jr. was alive, 45 percent replied that it is “about as safe.”

The survey was conducted via telephone with 1,647 people, and has a plus/minus 4.1 percent margin of error.