Kayla Brown, left, wears her gun on her hip while working at the Spring Guns and Ammo store Monday, Jan. 4, 2016, in Spring, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
(CNSNews.com) — Before President Obama announced new executive actions on gun control, a Gallup Poll released Monday shows that “guns/gun control” ranked near the bottom of Americans’ most pressing concerns in 2015.
In fact, guns/gun control ranked 19th out of 23 top problems facing the country last year.
According to Gallup, only one percent of respondents mentioned guns/gun control as a concern for most of the months in 2015, although mentions spiked to 7 percent in October and December following mass shootings in those months that dominated the news. (The overall average for the year was 2 percent.)
Americans were most likely to mention some aspect of the federal government in 2015 when asked to name the country’s top problem.
Sixteen percent of those responding listed Government/Congress/Politicians, and 13 percent chose the “Economy in general.” Eight percent said unemployment is the nation’s top problem, and for the first time since 2007, immigration was among the top four most frequently cited problems, mentioned by 8 percent of respondents.
Rounding out the top 10 were various problems each averaging 5 percent, including ethical/moral decline, race relations/racism, terrorism, the federal budget deficit/debt and education.
Gallup noted that 2015 marks only the second time since 2001 that no single issue averaged 20 percent or more for the year. However, 34 percent of Americans named at least one of several specific economic issues — including the economy, unemployment, the budget deficit, inflation and others.
Here is the list of the most important problems facing the U.S. in 2015 (issues averaging 2 percent or higher), as identified by Gallup:
A Gallop poll on what Americans feel are the nation’s most important issues.
Results for the monthly Gallup Poll Social Series surveys included in this analysis are based on telephone interviews conducted with a random sample of approximately 1,000 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The yearly averages from the combined results are based on the total sample of approximately 12,000 national adults, with a margin of sampling error of ±1 percentage point at the 95 percent confidence level.
Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50 percent cellphone respondents and 50 percent landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.
— Written by Susan Jones
This article first appeared on CNSNews.com. Read the original here.
Kayla Brown, left, wears her gun on her hip while working at the Spring Guns and Ammo store Monday, Jan. 4, 2016, in Spring, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) 
