Latinos are more likely than both whites and African Americans to favor strict gun control laws, according to a report released by the Pew Research Center on Wednesday.
The survey found that 57 percent of whites "say it is more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns" while "just 37 percent say it is more important to control gun ownership."
Latinos responded very differently. Just 29 percent of Latinos said that it is more important to protect gun ownership rights, than it is to control gun ownership. African American opinions fell in the middle of the two groups, with 35 percent of subjects answering that it is more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns.
Latinos and blacks are also disproportionately the victims of gun violence -- often at the hands of fellow Latinos and blacks.
African-American males ages between the ages of 15 to 19 are "nearly 5 times as likely as their white peers and more than twice as likely as their Hispanic or American-Indian/Alaska Native peers to be killed by firearms," according to a 2009 Children's Defense fund report.
In 2007, 68 percent of the Hispanic gun deaths were the result of a homicide, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC). Among white Americans, 80 percent of all gun deaths were connected to a suicide.
The prevalence of gun violence in Latin America may also be shaping Latino support for gun control in the United States. Parts of Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador, for example, are plagued by drug cartel and gun related violence.
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