Four months after the Newtown school massacre, a USA Today survey finds support for new gun controls ebbing as prospects for a federal bill are dim. Backing for a bill has slipped below 50 percent, the poll finds. By 49 percent-45 percent, those surveyed favor Congress passing a new gun-control law. In an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in early April, 55 percent backed a stricter gun law, down from 61% in February. “So much of the support for gun control is emotional” after Newtown, says Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. “The longer you get away from there, people start thinking of other issues. They start thinking about terrorism or jobs or immigration, and not surprisingly, then some of the momentum behind gun control starts to fade.” The Boston Marathon bombings may have had an effect, he speculates. “It wouldn’t be shocking if people sitting in their homes in Massachusetts cities and towns thought to themselves, ‘Boy, I wish I had something to protect myself with if a terrorist came through the door now.'”