The Falsehood That 90% Of The People Cannot Be Wrong

New York State (NY) Poll - April 17, 2013 - New York Republicans Shift Bac | Quinnipiac University Connecticut

This is the poll. Polls are picking up opinions. 24 hour a day coverage of dead children for two weeks with constant follow up coverage may have influenced the results.
Correction, here's the poll:

New Jersey (NJ) Poll - January 31, 2013 - Quinnipiac University Poll Fin | Quinnipiac University Connecticut

Indeed it was conducted while emotions were still raw, which undoubtedly influenced results.

Also, the question is overly simple: would you support background checks for purchases at gun shows? Most would, as that's what the vast majority of us already accept any time we purchase at a gun show (or dealer, or online retailer, etc.).

What the poll doesn't cover -- and what the real contention was about that gun control advocates won't acknowledge -- is exactly how these added background checks would be conducted, and what if any guarantees of personal privacy would be built in and be kept inviolable.

And what isn't clear is how the panel of respondents was chosen and in what numbers -- as long as that's unknown, we have no way of assessing if this could be considered a representative sampling and statistically significant result.
 
This "90% of Americans want this" really gets me.

I don't believe you could get 90% of the US to agree McDonalds sells hamburgers.........
I snoted..... and your absolutely right. 90% of the sample they chose in an area they had people to answer the question their way? Maybe.
 
It's called push polling. The questions are asked to advance an agenda, but when did any politician ever have to produce real evidence for anything? Never in recent history.
 
I think background checks are a good idea. We already have them though.... and they dont enforce the law now. If they made it easier and faster to perform a background check more people would be getting them done. Personally I would never sell a gun to someone I didnt know. I would feel pretty bad if they did hurt someone with it. About the same way I would feel if I sold my car to someone and the ran someone over with it.

Support the lefts bill though? No. They are not trying to disarm criminals. They are trying to disarm future generations.
 
Polling was done by several organizations. They all came in close to the same. Here is an example--

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2013/01/18/fox-news-poll-gun-rights-and-gun-control/

34.-43. Do you favor or oppose each of the following proposals to reduce gun violence?

Requiring criminal background checks on all
gun buyers, including those buying at gun
shows and private sales.

-------91% Favor


I don't think the question was too tricky for most gun owners to comprehend.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Pretending that all the different polls were skewed to anti-gun folks doesn't fly. What all the polling indicated is that given the choice of favor or oppose, most everyone favored. But that doesn't tell you to what degree they favored imposing background checks on private sales. Likely pretty soft support. I mean, I doubt 90% of America was loosing sleep over it. What those polls told me is how easily many gun owners are willing to give away their freedoms.

So we got 46 Senators to say no against overwhelming but soft support and some to avoid a fight with the NRA. I think we (the 10%) were fortunate to have the NRA in our corner.
 
Perhaps 90% of the people queried do support more gun legislation. What is missing is any documentation as to who is that 90% . Could have been 90 people at a 100 person anti-gun rally. As long as the media supports this kind of unsubstantiated garbage the general public will eat it up. What really bothers me is that the so called politicians 'on our side' aren't calling it what it is...a massive lie. We lost the last election by being too polite and too nice and too PC. We need some people in DC to either speak up or get out of the way.

Where did that 90% number come from? And has it been independently verified?

oops - Chattanooga Phil FTW. Either I need new glasses or another cup of coffee, lol!
 
This is one of the reasons the Bill of Rights was enacted. There was argument that no Bill of Rights was needed, as everything in it was such an obvious right of free people. One argument for the Bill of Rights was that it preserved the rights of free people from the whims of the opinions of the majority.

Actually this is the reason our country was founded as a Constitutional Republic and not a democracy.
 
I have thought a long time about the 90% figure since it is reported over and over.
I absolutely am convinced it is a lie or at the very least inaccurate for this reason; I am of the opinion that a huge majority of our fellow gun enthusiast simply refuse to participate in any poll whatsoever.
I personally would never answer a pollsters question on any political topic.
 
History example

On the day following the Gleiwitz attack, 1 September 1939, Germany launched the Fall Weiss operation — the invasion of Poland — initiating World War II in Europe. On the same day, in a speech in the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler cited the border incidents, with three of them called very serious, as justification for Germany's invasion of Poland.[7] Just a few days earlier, on 22 August, he had told his generals, "I will provide a propagandistic casus belli. Its credibility doesn't matter. The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth."
Source: Wikipedia
Reminds me of Iraq. And 2A issue is no different except it is internal assault.
 
Last edited:
Polling was done by several organizations. They all came in close to the same. Here is an example--

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2013/01/18/fox-news-poll-gun-rights-and-gun-control/

34.-43. Do you favor or oppose each of the following proposals to reduce gun violence?

Requiring criminal background checks on all
gun buyers, including those buying at gun
shows and private sales.

-------91% Favor


I don't think the question was too tricky for most gun owners to comprehend.

I find it no surprise the 91% figure of those supporting background checks is quoted. However, I found the responses to question 46 and 47 more interesting and one that should be at the fore front of the discussion. The majority of gun owners across the political spectrum would defy a government confiscation of firearms. Many office holders in all parties really don't want to upset and risking swaying the votes of 80 million gun owners so they have wisely chosen to let this issue slowly go away.
 
Back
Top