POLL: A Nation Divided on the Confederate Flag

Supporters of keeping the Confederate battle flag flying 
at a Confederate monument at the South Carolina statehouse 
wave flags during a rally in front of the statehouse in 
Columbia, S.C., on June 27, 2015. (Photo: Bruce Smith, AP)

In the wake of the church shootings in Charleston, the nation is split on whether the Confederate flag is a racist symbol that should be removed from public spaces, a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds.

Political leaders in South Carolina, Alabama and elsewhere have led efforts to take down the flag. But the survey finds no national consensus about that — the divide is 42%-42% on whether the flag is racist — and little hope that anything the United States government could do about guns would prevent mass shootings like the one that took nine lives at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Pro-confederate flag demonstrator William Wells chants 
"heritage not hate" next to an anti-confederate flag demonstrator 
outside the South Carolina statehouse in Columbia, S.C., 
June 27, 2015. (Photo: Jim Watson, AFP/Getty Images)

"There is almost a thread of thinking running through the poll that nothing can be done to make any meaningful changes," says David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston.

By 56%-40%, Americans say tighter gun-control laws wouldn't prevent more mass shootings. By 4-1, 76%-18%, they say easier access to guns wouldn't prevent them. And by 5-1, 78%-15%, they see little chance Congress will pass gun legislation in the foreseeable future.

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The poll of 1,000 adults, taken by landline and cellphone from Thursday through Monday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

"It doesn't make any difference if you have strict gun control or don't have it," says Frank Ziebarth, 64, of Whitewater, Wis., who was among those polled. "The bad guys are going to get hold of one. That's been going on forever and I don't think that's going to change."

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