Thursday, October 8, 2009

Rasmussen: 50% Oppose Stricter Gun Control

The latest Rasmussen report about gun control is making quite a stir. The headline and the first sentence of the article are already flying around the gun blogs like so many stray bullets.

50% Oppose Stricter Gun Control Laws

Just 39% of Americans now say the United States needs stricter gun control, as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to review the constitutionality of state and local anti-gun laws.

Do those stats make sense to you? Do you really believe they accurately reflect what Americans think? I certainly don't, and not because they challenge some of my theories, but simply because they seem suspiciously slanted. What is the agenda of the Rasmussen Group? What kinds of questions were asked in the "telephone survey?" Would a slight rewording of the questions have produced a different result?

What's your opinion? Do you place a lot of stock in reports like this? Why is it that different opinions can always come up with surveys and statistics to support their argument?

Please leave a comment.

15 comments:

  1. California has pretty good gun control laws, so I don't really think they need better laws. They simply need to enforce the ones they have.

    But, if you compare California's gun laws to the rest of the country, the rest of the country needs stricter gun laws -- but that wasn't asked by the survey, was it?

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  2. I would say of the people wanting "Stricter" gun control laws, a huge portion of them likely have no idea what is required to buy, own, and carry a firearm, and likely have no idea what firearms are legal to own.

    You share the blame for that sad reality, MikeB.

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  3. That's the spirit Mikeb--when polls suggest a trend you don't like, they must be wrong, or biased, or . . . wrong.

    With enough education about the issue, we can bring it to a majority favoring making the laws less insanely restrictive.

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  4. 'Scuse me? Name 10 anti-gun blogs.

    Yeah, I knew you couldn't do it.

    Mike B. shares nothing with any reality. The pro-gunners have created their own reality.

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  5. Mike B. shares nothing with any reality.

    Preach it, brother!

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  6. Ask a stupid question, read the article and find your answer.

    What kinds of questions were asked in the "telephone survey?" If you read the article and click on the link that said "survey questions", then you wouldn't need to ask a stupid question.

    Seriously mikeb, I am believing that you don't actually read any of the news stories you post. There have been at least a half dozen times that I pointed out where the information you presented was contradicted by the story link you posted or you asked some question that was clearly answered in the story link.

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  7. Weer'd is right. So much of it is pure ignorance. Most people don't know just how bad the laws are, and how they affect us. Even when you do know it's hard to really grasp just how bad things are if you're not a gun owner.

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  8. BTW Anon: what exactly have California's gun laws done to keep you safe?

    I live in Massachusetts, and as a general rule its a state with some of the strictest gun laws in the country, yet the streets are controlled by armed gangs.

    Meanwhile neighboring states like New Hampshire and Vermont that are some of the friendliest states to gun owners, seem to have things pretty good.

    Now you can say there are other factors in those states. Yep, and the OTHER factors are the important ones...as the gun laws don't do shit, but make my life a pain.

    Bigots like MikeB have making our lives a pain as their end game...while they plead to let the criminals out of prison.

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  9. Mike and Weer'd have stumbled across a problem that has been getting more discussion recently, that is, the immense number of laws on the books that people have absolutely no hope of knowing. Here is a great article from the Washington Times about the situation:

    Criminalizing everyoneRate: Needed: A 'clean line' to determine lawfulness

    Now, this obviously has only a tangential relationship to the issue at hand, but it does show that merely making "more" or "better" laws will not solve a problem and only adds to the already onerous legal system in this country.

    Here is a link to a book with a very interesting premise:

    Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent

    It postulates that there are so many laws already on the books that it is almost impossible to NOT break a federal, state or local law at least three times a day. I have yet to read it, but it's been generating alot of buzz.

    ****cough*****it would make for an interesting blog post******cough*****

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  10. Honestly, I think most people just don't care. It's not a hot topic on their agenda, so as concern about other issues increases, concern about other non-related laws decreases. Have a string of mass shootings, things might sway another way. Point out that they all happened in legal 'gun-free' zones, it might sway the other way.

    The vast majority of people don't know (or care) about gun laws unless they're on one side or the other. Their knowledge about firearms comes from Hollywood (where carving a smiley face with a pistol, rapid fire at 50 yards is easy) and the media's typically sensationalized coverage of anything bad happening.

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  11. MikeB also thinks the FBI Uniform Crime Report is slanted towards firearms.

    His conception of reality is lacking.

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  12. cj has captured it perfectly. The apathy of the non-gun-owning public accounts for a terrible slanting in stats like this. People who own guns are generally passionate about them. People who don't generally couldn't care less.

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  13. Reputo, Thanks for the link to the questions. I didn't see it before. You're right, I should have.

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  14. stats like this are like assholes. everyone has one, and 99% of the are full of shit.

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