Gun Control Poll

I recently looked at the results of a poll on Americans’ views on gun control. The poll asked the following six questions:

·         Should gun control laws be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now?Should gun control laws be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now?Should gun control laws be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now?Should gun control laws be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now?

·         Do you or any other member of your household own a handgun, rifle, shotgun, or any other kind of firearm?

Do you favor or oppose…

·         A nationwide ban on semiautomatic weapons?

·         A ban on the sale of high capacity magazines?

·         Background checks on all potential gun buyers?

·         A national database of gun sales

After reading the results, I found it interesting (but not surprising) that the poll results showed Americans favoring stricter gun laws than those done in past years. Also, after reading the questions, I felt that they were not tricky and/or bias in any way. However, I think the questions were very brief and to the point because these polls were conducted over the phone and they didn’t want to risk the chance of having non-attitude answers. I felt that the questions were very to the point and easy to answer. Another notable factor of the poll was that the same size was 1,110 adults. In my opinion, this was a reasonable sample size for the poll. Now that I’ve analyzed the poll, I would like to talk about some of the numbers. First, let’s look at the first question’s results. From 2005 to 2010, people’s want for stricter gun control laws began to decline. It started with about 52% wanting stricter laws, but then decreased by about 10%. However, the results of this poll showed that 54% of the people in the poll want stricter gun laws. This result changed drastically from the last poll (about 13-15 percent). However, this increase in definitely due to the recent school shootings which is proof that people change their opinions based on society at the time. Finally, I would like to discuss the second question shown above. The results showed that 53% of white people owned some type of firearm, while 31% non-whites owned one. Also, not surprisingly, the results showed that people in rural areas owned more guns (64%) than those living in big cities (32%). Ultimately, I found this question interesting because I felt like it told me things I already knew and it represented the “norms” within society. Of course Republicans (result of 62%) are going to be more likely to own a gun than those that claim to be Democrats (result of 34%). Of course men (result of 55%) are more likely to have a firearm than women (result of 40%). Overall, I felt this was a good representation of a poll and I felt that it was interesting because of the recent debated on gun control laws.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/01/17/us/poll-americans-views-on-gun-control.html

Should gun control laws be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now?

Should gun control laws be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now?