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Does searching for the term constitute support or opposition to greater gun control?

Probably mostly support.

Not a good assumption. The reports of huge increases in gun purchases suggests many are worried about future legislation.

People in your area may support it, but in other areas (like mine) they may be less apt to trade liberty for security.

Presumably gun advocates who were worried about new laws would not also be searching for, say, "gun violence"

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%22gun%20violence%22&...

or "gun deaths"

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%22gun%20deaths%22...

And yet both of those show the same dramatic spike in interest.

There also seems to be a dramatic spike in interest in "2nd amendment"

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=2nd%20amendment&c...

And "gun rights"

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=gun%20rights&cmpt...

Only the latter is phrased in a way that implies the searchers are primarily gun advocates, and that spike is only about 3x. Whereas searches for "gun violence" spiked 15-20x.

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