Newsmax Poll

Rain

You have to vote to see the results.http://www.newsmax.com/surveys/GunControl/Should-Obama-Increase-Federal-Gun-Control-/id/64/kw/default?PROMO_CODE=11EE5-1 Should the federal government regulate guns of any type? Yes, it should 179,742(28%) No, it should not 462,160(71%) Should Congress ban semi-automatic weapons? Yes, it should 142,557(22%) No, it should not 501,951(77%) If Congress does not act, should President Obama use an executive order to ban or strictly control the sale of semi-automatic weapons? Yes, he should 129,012(20%) No, he should not 514,704(79%) Do you agree that the Second Amendment gives citizens the right to own and bear guns without infringement? Yes, I agree527,224 (81%) No, I don't agree116,966 (18%)

jadelt

.... here we go again...... there you go getting JDH all riled up...... If you read it on the internet it ..... well nevermind

raisindot

Glad to hear from the partisan conversative POV. How about different results from an actual news-gathering organization: [Quoted from the press release] Fifty-three percent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll view Obama’s gun control plan favorably, 41 percent unfavorably. Strong proponents outnumber strong opponents by 38 vs. 31 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. Majorities from 88 to 65 percent favored background checks at gun shows and on ammunition purchases, creating a federal database to track gun sales and banning high-capacity magazines. That included, in each case, majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike. The president’s proposals are seen favorably by 76 percent of Democrats but unfavorably by 72 percent of Republicans; most on each side feel strongly about their respective positions. Independents split 51-44 percent, favorable-unfavorable. Obama's proposals are viewed positively by 56 percent of women vs. 49 percent of men; 58 percent of seniors vs. 47 percent of young adults; 66 percent in the Northeast vs. 50 percent in the rest of the country; 72 percent of nonwhites vs. 43 percent of whites; and 73 percent of liberals vs. 36 percent of conservatives. Note that the question itself only asked how people felt about the proposals in general; it didn't get into specifics. Anyhoo, doesn't matter, since nothing other than background checks will ever pass, and even that is questionable.

brianetz1

rainsdot said what i was going to say. newsmax is a self admittedly right wing slanting site. but i would like to see how many were polled in the ABC poll. over 700,000 people in a poll is nothing to sneeze at regardless of if the target audience is primarily conservative.

raisindot

Sorry, should have included that. 1,033 randomly called people, which is pretty much standard for these kinds of polls. Full results here:
http://www.langerresearch.com/uploads/1144-7a2ObamaGunControl.pdf

I don't have problems with the number polled or the general methodology, since it's standard phone call polling stuff, but I think it would have been more compelling it they had polled about the individual components (background checks, banning semi-automatics and certain cartridge sizes), since it is likely a significant number of people polled don't have a full grasp of what the proposals entail. Still, I don't think even this would have changed the results significantly, or at least to the extremes of partisan polls (hell, I wouldn't trust the results of a similar poll conducted by Mother Jones either, even it it did have 700,000 respondents).

jsnake

raindot quotes the obvious liberal media machine and dismisses all others as right wing. These media polling services are slick. They target the people who will most likely agree with them.

brianetz1

jsnake:

raindot quotes the obvious liberal media machine and dismisses all others as right wing. These media polling services are slick. They target the people who will most likely agree with them.

i honestly think that the ABC poll is much closer to what the nation as a whole thinks than the newsmax one is though.

Hosting a poll on a site that middle of the road or liberals don't go to and then pointing out that the vast majority of those polled are against these measures is like pointing out that the sky is blue. newsmax's regular readers are the ones answering the poll and 70% of them are conservatives. If you put the same poll on msnbc you would get the exact opposite results.

At least ABC had a independent company do the polling for them.

i would love to see a poll of over 1 million americans randomly selected with the only selection criteria being that each area of the country be represented correctly by amount of population. For example since no one lives in places like idaho they only get a few votes....:)....., but California gets about 300,000 of those votes.

beatnic

raisindot:

Sorry, should have included that. 1,033 randomly called people, which is pretty much standard for these kinds of polls. Full results here:
http://www.langerresearch.com/uploads/1144-7a2ObamaGunControl.pdf

I don't have problems with the number polled or the general methodology, since it's standard phone call polling stuff, but I think it would have been more compelling it they had polled about the individual components (background checks, banning semi-automatics and certain cartridge sizes), since it is likely a significant number of people polled don't have a full grasp of what the proposals entail. Still, I don't think even this would have changed the results significantly, or at least to the extremes of partisan polls (hell, I wouldn't trust the results of a similar poll conducted by Mother Jones either, even it it did have 700,000 respondents).

I was thinking the same thing about Obama Care. I think it would have been more compelling it they had polled about the individual components, since it is likely a significant number of people polled din't have a full grasp of what the proposals entail. In fact, even Congress didn't know what was in it till they voted on it. But if you polled the people, sure, they were in favor of a fairer health care system.

raisindot

jsnake:

raindot quotes the obvious liberal media machine and dismisses all others as right wing. These media polling services are slick. They target the people who will most likely agree with them.

Hey, hey, hey, sir, slow down. I didn't dismiss "all other polls," only the one posted by the OP, which is clearly sponsored by a clearly identified conservative organization and is therefore overly partisan and representing only its constituency. And, as I clearly stated in a posting, I wouldn't trust the results of a similar online poll conducted by Moveon or any left wing PAC either. At least the ABC poll does provide breakdowns of the demographics of those who supported and were against the question, and those results seem to align with what appears to be predictable attitudes (Republicans and white males largely against it; Democrats and women largely for it, etc.).
And as I said before, whether a majority of people favor Obama's gun proposals or not, nothing beyond background checks will ever get enacted. So don't worry. No one's going to take away your rights to own semi-automatic weapons.

JDH

jadelt:

.... here we go again...... there you go getting JDH all riled up...... If you read it on the internet it ..... well nevermind

Not to worry; I'm not "riled up", just convinced that those who are opposing any regulation of military weapons in the general population are not only on the wrong side of history, but are in the minority opinion of the American people, as I have previously stated.

beatnic

I can only hope you are right. Sen Diane Feinstein is doing her thing today.

JDH

beatnic:

I can only hope you are right. Sen Diane Feinstein is doing her thing today.

I think you might have mis-read what I said.

beatnic

JDH:

beatnic:

I can only hope you are right. Sen Diane Feinstein is doing her thing today.

I think you might have mis-read what I said.

I was referring to Raisindot