evidence: Gun Owners Join Non-Gun Owners in Supporting Background Checks [...] Still, gun owners match non-gun owners in support for making background checks a blanket requirement for gun purchases, with 95% and 96%, respectively, in favor. This is the first time Gallup has measured support for background checks using the current question wording. However, posing a slightly different question in 2015 that specified the law would use a "centralized database across all 50 states," Gallup found 86% in favor of universal background checks for all gun purchases. Additionally, a 1999 Gallup question that measured support for mandatory background checks, including purchases made at gun shows, found 87% of Americans in favor.