More Americans support tougher restrictions on gun ownership, two national surveys released Monday show.

A new Gallup survey finds Americans’ support for tougher gun laws has spiked in the past year to 38 percent, the highest level since 2001.

That's up from 25 percent just one year ago -- before the mass shootings at a Batman screening in Aurora, Colo., and an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

Despite the increase, a larger percentage of Americans, 43 percent in the Gallup poll, remain content with the current regulations on guns, and 5 percent of respondents said they would like to see gun laws loosened.

Released a month after the Connecticut school shooting that left 26 dead, the surveys have tested American sentiment as debate rages about whether or not there should be more regulations on the purchase and possession of firearms.

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A national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found similar trends: 85 percent of those polled support background checks for private gun sales and on sales at gun shows. A large majority of respondents – 80 percent – also support preventing mentally ill people from buying guns.

Prominent politicians, including Conn. Gov. Dan Malloy and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have urged legislators in their states to pass new or tougher bans on assault weapons.

A day earlier than planned, Vice President Biden is expected to deliver proposals from the White House’s gun control task force to President Obama on Monday.

Gun-rights groups: Our 'backs are against the wall'

Male respondents and Democrats were among the groups that showed the most change in their views in the latest Gallup poll: 35 percent of men nationally now say they are dissatisfied with current gun laws, up from 18 percent a year ago.

Women showed a 10 point increase over the last year in the Gallup poll, with 41 percent now saying they are unhappy with current gun laws and want to see them strengthened.

Support for stricter gun laws spiked among nonwhites, as well, jumping from 32 percent to 49 percent, according to Gallup data.

Gov. Cuomo proposes nation's 'toughest' ban on assault weapons

The surveys showed a widening partisan rift over guns. Democrats are now far more likely than Republicans to favor new gun laws: 64 percent of Democrats surveyed in the Gallup poll said they were dissatisfied with current gun policy, compared to 18 percent of Republicans. Though overall two-thirds of Americans in the Pew survey support a federal database to track gun sales, support is divided between blue and red lines: 84 percent of Democrats support a database, while only 49 percent of Republicans said the same.

The Pew survey also found gun-rights supporters are more politically active than their counterparts: Twenty-three percent of those who prioritize gun rights have given money to an organization that takes a position on gun policy, versus only 5 percent of those who prioritize gun control have done the same. The poll also found gun-rights advocates are about twice as likely to have contacted a public official about gun policy, than gun-control supporters.

When asked about school-safety proposals, the Pew poll found 64 percent favor armed security guards and police in more schools, but only 40 percent support arming more teachers and school officials.

The survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press was conducted between January 9 and 13. The poll sampled 1,502 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 points.

In Gallup’s study, the questions on guns were asked in their "Mood of the Nation" survey conducted between January 7 and 10. This survey sampled 1,011 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus four points.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday accused Gallup Organization, the country's most venerable and best-known political polling firm, of bilking the U.S. government on millions of dollars in federal  contracts.

In a federal court filing, DOJ lawyers said they will pursue some of the claims first made in a lawsuit filed by a Gallup whistleblower who accused the polling organization of routinely inflating bills on  polling services for the U.S. Mint, the U.S. Passport Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Gallup -- a Washington, D.C.,-based company that promotes itself as "the most trusted name in polling" -- did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The announcement comes at an awkward time for Gallup, in the middle of an election season when the company's polls are routinely cited in coverage of the presidential election. (In its latest tracking poll released Wednesday, Gallup has Mitt Romney ahead of  President Obama by a 47 to 45 percent margin. http://www.gallup.com/poll/154559/US-Presidential-Election-Center.aspx)

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The whistleblower, Michael Lindley, served as director of client services for Gallup from February 2008 until  July 2009, when, according to his lawsuit, he was abruptly fired after complaining about the alleged overbillings and threatening to go to the Justice Department if they didn’t stop.

 "When you start talking about going to the Department of Justice, I don't trust you anymore," Lindley alleges he was told by the firm's top lawyer, according to a copy of his complaint obtained by NBC News.

In  a DOJ press release, Ronald Machen, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said the decision to intervene shows "we will do all that we can to act against those who illegitimately bill the American taxpayers." 

Lindley filed his lawsuit under seal in October 2009 as a so-called "qui tam" case that allows private whistleblowers to recover a portion of fraudulent billings that they bring to the U.S. government's attention. HIs complaint, made public for the first time on Wednesday alleges a wide range of improprieties within Gallup -- not all of which were accepted by the Justice Department after a nearly three-year investigation.

According to Lindley's complaint, Gallup effectively kept two sets of books on its federal business -- one that inflated its costs that were  submitted to government agencies,  another internally that reflected the firm's real (and much lower) costs to perform the work.

As an example, Lindley alleges that Gallup received a $2 million a year sole source contract with the U.S. Mint to conduct surveys on the likely purchasers of newly minted coins, such as presidential coins. In its budget presented to the Mint, "Galllup would inflate the number of hours required to complete the work, usually by a multiple of two or three times," the complaint alleges.

Gallup also submitted "vastly inflated" budgets for its work for the U.S. Passport agency in support of a five year, $25 million sole-source contract for surveys aimed at predicting the number of passport applications that would be needed under new border control laws requiring travelers to Mexico and Canada to carry passports.

Those claims were adopted by Justice in its decision to intervene. In another part  of his complaint-- that was not adopted by Justice but remain outstanding against the company-- Lindley alleges that Gallup officials drafted large portions of a federal bid proposal by the U.S. Army for survey research in Iraq to insure that Gallup was the only polling firm that qualified. (The original bid proposal, he alleges, asked for a company that had 70 or more years of polling experience; it was later rewritten to say 10 or more years of experience and Gallup was awarded the $15 million contract.)

The lawsuit also alleges that Gallup violated "clear conflict of interest"  rules by offering a job to a high level FEMA employee who played a role in steering a $12 million, five-year contract to Gallup. Justice lawyers said in their filing they plan to assert  "additional claims" relating to the FEMA contract, but did not identify what they are.

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Support for same-sex marriage rose among voters of all political stripes in recent years, but it surged so much among Democrats that the partisan divide on the issue is wider than ever, according to a national survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

Sixty-five percent of Democrats are now favor same-sex marriage, compared to 50 percent four years ago, while 24 percent of Republicans are in support, versus 19 percent in 2008, the survey found. The gap between the two major parties stands at 41 percentage points.

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“The latest national survey … finds that the partisan divide over gay marriage continues to widen,” the forum said. The survey also found that 51 percent of independents now favor gay marriage, seven percentage points more than 2008.

President Barack Obama’s announcement in May that he supported same-sex marriage -- the first American president to do so -- “rallied the Democratic base,” especially liberal Democrats, to the issue, though its overall impact on public opinion has been limited, the forum said.

“Reports that the Democratic Party may add support for gay marriage to its party platform are in keeping with a significant shift of  opinion on this issue among Democrats nationwide,” the forum report said.

The report noted that there had been an increase in support for same-sex marriage across several demographic groups who had opposed it in the past: African-American support is up to 40 percent from 26 percent in 2008, while 28 percent of those who attend church at least weekly back it, compared with 23 percent in 2008.

In May, a Gallup poll found that 50 percent of Americans believe same-sex marriage should be legal and bestow the same rights as traditional marriage, compared to 48 percent who don’t.

 “This year's results underscore just how divided the nation is on this issue,” Gallup said at the time.

Six states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage, while 31 states have constitutional amendments that effectively ban it. Plaintiffs in several lawsuits challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act -- which defines marriage as between a man and a woman -- have asked the Supreme Court to hear their case in the high court’s next session.

The Pew Forum survey of 2,973 adults was conducted from June 28-July 9 with a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points. 

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Americans' confidence in religious institutions has hit an all-time low, with only 44 percent expressing a "great deal" of confidence in organized religion, according to a new Gallup survey.

This follows a downward trend since the 1970s, when 68 percent of Americans had a high degree of confidence.

Gallup cites two big blows to confidence in organized religion: 1980s scandals involving televangelists like Jim Bakker and the Catholic sex abuse scandal in the 2000s. 

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Perhaps as an outgrowth of the abuse scandal, Catholics lag far behind Protestants in their confidence in the church, by a margin of 10 percentage points.

But the scandals of recent decades, and the ensuing lack of confidence in organized religion, are not necessarily affecting the importance of religion in peoples' lives, Gallup finds.

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"While various sex abuse scandals involving U.S. clerics have likely played a role in Americans' growing skepticism about the church and organized religion, the decline in confidence does not necessarily indicate a decline in Americans' personal attachment to religion," writes Lydia Saad of Gallup. "The percentage of Americans saying religion is very important in their lives has held fairly steady since the mid-1970s, after dropping sharply from 1952 levels."

It's also worth noting that organized religion is far from the only institution in which Americans are losing confidence. Americans also are souring on schools, banks and television news, according to Gallup's survey.

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Half of Americans believe gay marriage should be legal, but nearly as many are opposed, the Gallup organization said Tuesday in releasing a new poll that it said underscores “just how divided the nation is on this issue.”

Fifty percent of Americans think same-sex marriage should be legal and bestow the same rights as traditional marriage, compared to 48 percent who don’t, according to the poll.

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Support for gay marriage fell slightly in the new Gallup poll from a record high of 53 percent in 2011 – the first time a majority of Americans favored gay marriage -- while opposition rose from 45 percent.

Smaller same-sex marriage battleground this year than in 2004

The poll, conducted May 3-6 of a random sample of 1,024 adults, had a maximum margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, Gallup said.

“This year's results underscore just how divided the nation is on this issue. As a result, President Barack Obama's campaign strategy team obviously is continuing to grapple with how to handle it -- with the vice president on the one hand essentially endorsing legalized gay marriage, while the administration on the other hand stops just short of the same pronouncement,” the poll said in a statement, referring to Vice President Joe Biden’s comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was “absolutely comfortable” with gay marriage.

Biden: I'm absolutely comfortable with gay marriage

The release of the poll came as North Carolina residents voted Tuesday on a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman and make marriage the only domestic legal union that would be valid in the state. Recent polls show the amendment passing. Thirty states already have constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage, while eight states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage.

“We’re having a great debate about marriage in this country, and it’s not at all settled about which way we’re going to go,” said Thomas Peters, cultural director of the National Organization for Marriage, which supports the amendment. “Obviously … we believe that’s going to be settled one way.”

Gay-marriage advocates fear setback in North Carolina

In a NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released in March, Americans favored same-sex marriage by 49 percent to 40 percent. That marked  a reversal from October 2009, when opponents trumped supporters by 49 percent to 41 percent. Both women and black voters -- constituents that are strongly in Obama’s corner -- have moved in significant numbers to supporting gay marriage, that poll said.

Is Obama's gay marriage stance all about suburban voters?

Gallup noted that “Obama's core constituency of Democrats strongly supports the issue, as do the majority of the important election group of independents. The president has said his view on the issue is ‘evolving,’ so it is possible he will eventually go on record as supporting gay marriage, but for now, he officially remains opposed.”

According to the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, a key electoral group -- suburban voters -- narrowly favored gay marriage, 45 percent to 43 percent. Obama supported civil unions but opposed marriage for gay couples during the 2008 campaign.

In gay marriage vote, it's Bill Clinton vs. Billy Graham

Paul Guequierre, a spokesman for Human Rights Campaign, which works on equal rights for the LGBT community, said the Gallup numbers were promising and he wasn’t sure that people were split as much as they once were.

“The news from Gallup today was very encouraging. It’s great to see that the American people are moving towards a position of support for LGBT equality. We’ve seen the numbers move in our favor for a number of years now, and to see the number over 50 percent is always encouraging,” Guequierre said. “It was just a few years ago, we were well below 50 percent, and we see the numbers moving in our direction.”

NBC's Domenico Montanaro contributed to this report

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Where do Americans have the most hope?

In U.S. cities, that place is Provo-Orem, Utah, where 76 percent of residents say their area is becoming a better place to live, according to a Gallup poll released on Tuesday.

The findings show the Utah valley's metropolitan area closely followed by Lafayette, Louisiana; the Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina area; and Huntsville, Alabama.

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The nation's least optimistic city? Binghamton, New York, where less than 28 percent see their area improving.

Flint, Michigan; Rockford, Illinois; and the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman area of Ohio and Pennsylvania were other pessimistic cities on Gallup's Healthways-Wellbeing Index.

Gallup, which based its survey on interviews with 353,492 adults across the United States, said it wasn't immediately clear why residents in some urban areas were more optimistic and satisfied with their communities compared to others, but that unemployment rates, income and other factors may be at play.

"Together, the data suggest there is likely a combination of factors that can create optimism about a community," it said in a statement releasing the results.

Read the full Gallup story

The national polling group also said what works in some of the best performing cities could provide an example for other regions to follow. It said leaders in more optimistic areas could "channel that positive energy into a community's economic and social infrastructure, in turn, creating the types of good jobs that help cities thrive."

"Alternately, communities in which residents lack optimism risk losing the very talent and energy they need to rise again," Gallup said.

Gallup's interviews were conducted throughout 2011. The poll's margin of error varied according to the size of the metro area, from less than 1 percentage point for larger cities to plus-or-minus 6.5 percentage points for smaller ones.

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Rick Santorum is far from alone in professing a belief in Satan. In fact, most Americans believe in the devil too.

Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and 2012 Republican presidential contender, is making headlines this week for comments he made at a Catholic university in 2008 about Satan having his “sights on” America.

In the speech, which resurfaced recently, Santorum told an audience at Ave Maria University in southwest Florida: “Satan [has been] attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that [have] so deeply rooted in the American tradition.”

Atheists bill big names for 'coming out' party in Washington

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He said Satan has been “most successful” in attacking academia, but that Satan also has gone after the church and popular culture. Santorum said politics and government would be the next to fall to Satan’s attack. “The body politic held up fairly well up until the last couple of decades but it is falling too.”

While such frank talk about spiritual warfare is uncommon among presidential candidates, surveys over the past few decades have shown that the majority of Americans do believe in Satan.

According to a 2007 Gallup poll, seven in 10 Americans said they believe in “the Devil,” while 8 percent were not sure. Twenty-one percent said they don’t believe in the devil.

Eighty-six percent said they believe in God, while 8 percent were not sure and 6 percent said they don’t believe in God.

A 2009 Harris Interactive survey found 60 percent of American adults believe in the devil, while 82 percent said they believe in God.

"Santorum's comments regarding his theory of the fall of American institutions is, I think, quite relevant in the current presidential debate," said C. Melissa Snarr, associate preofessor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

"In a public speech, Santorum offered a grand interpretation of the current challenges facing the United States. I think it is imperative to analyze and debate his version of a political theodicy (or why bad things happen to good countries) and ask whether his interpretation is one that voters should feel comfortable backing," Snarr said in an email to msnbc.com."

"What he's saying, it's certainly not any heresy," the Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center, told CNN. "It's the language some preachers would use that conservative Catholics would be very comfortable with. Is it the kind of language theology professors at Catholic universities would use? Probably not. They would likely see it more metaphorically," he said, according to CNN.

Santorum on Tuesday defended his 2008 speech.

“You know, I’m a person of faith. I believe in good and evil,” he told reporters following a rally in Phoenix. “I think if somehow or another, because you’re a person of faith you believe in good and evil [is] a disqualifier for president, we’re going to have a very small pool of candidates who can run for president.”

Snarr said the media is right to dissect the speech.

"Is the media making too much of it? No. He has chosen to make a very public interpretation of the trajectory of the United States (specifically citing an opposition candidate) and his public political theology should be discussed thoroughly," Snarr said in an email response.

She added: "This is not to say, however, that a belief in Satan or even spiritual warfare puts him at the 'extreme' end of Christianity. Belief in Satan and Satan's activity is present in multiple Christian traditions and particularly important for more theologically conservative evangelical believers— of whom there are many in the U.S."

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