Saturday, April 26, 2014

The Famous 90% Figure on Background Checks

17 comments:

  1. I'm sure you need to believe that. If it comforts you, go ahead. Oh, and Santa Claus is watching you while you sleep.

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  2. The pro gun voices on this blog say these numbers are lies.

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  3. The next couple of elections should tell the tale.

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    1. But the recall elections in Colorado didn't?

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    2. Mikeb, the people who decide their votes on the question of gun rights tend to vote in favor of those rights. But most people vote on matters of economics first.

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    3. If anything the recall elections on CO told the tale in our favor. That was two elected officials out of 35 - and most importantly the offending law still stands.

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    4. Yeah, that was a win for you guys alright.

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    5. Mikeb, you're always in such a hurry. Defending rights takes patience. Three tyrants were removed from office. Hudak resigned before she could be defeated. Democrats have a one-seat advantage. Give it time.

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    6. TS, I'm not the one who claimed this as a big victory. That's what you guys keep doing. I'm just pointing out that it's not that, not at all.

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    7. That's right, someone who disagrees with your opinion is a tyrant. Laughable GC.

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  4. What do you think the percentage would be if they asked: "do you support making it a federal felony to sell a gun privately regardless of the buyer's status, rather than expanding the background check system in a way to cover private use?"

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    1. Everyone agrees that some surveys ask loaded questions in order to elicit the response they want. Is that what you think happened in the examples above? To me the questions posed seemed pretty fair.

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    2. When a survey posed a question specifically about the bills that didn't pass, the results told a much different story.

      http://www.mediaite.com/online/so-much-for-the-90-percent-poll-shows-gun-control-legislations-failure-greeted-with-relief-by-many/

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    3. Of course they do, Mikeb. You always think your side asks fair questions.

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    4. TS and Greg, you both dodged my question. Were these questions in this post biased or fair?

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    5. Mikeb, we've discussed this many times. These polls didn't ask about the full details of the proposed background check law. Do people support background checks? Perhaps. Do they support making felons out of gun owners who let someone try out a gun at a private range without running a check? Do they support making felons out of gay men who leave a firearm at home with their partners while on a trip if they live in states that don't allow gay marriage? Those are different questions.

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    6. The mother of these polls was a Frank Luntz poll, paid for by Bloomberg. Luntz advertises his firm as conducting biased polls to get the client the answer they paid for. Once it became a hot button issue, a lot of other similar polls came out. The other area of bias is interpreting what these polls mean. Those pushing gun control interpret it as support for their legislation (but the questions were not "do you support this legislation?"). Strictly speaking, I would have to answer "yes" to these polls too because I support background checks done the right way. Look, if a poll shows that the majority of Americans want intervention in Ukraine, that doesn't mean the people would support nuking Moscow.

      We can also see that reality is not meshing with the polls as you interpret them. Not only is there the recalls, but we see compliance with the new background check at less than 10%. So are you telling me that the majority of gun owners want this law because they want to be felons?

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