4 ms·

People talk about the "90%" or whatever support that universal background checks had among the voting public. However, ignoring the problems of legislating base

People talk about the "90%" or whatever support that universal background checks had among the voting public. However, ignoring the problems of legislating based on shallow polls, nobody seems to be talking about the 90+% of sherrifs and police officers who believed that neither universal background checks nor a so-called "assault weapons ban" would have any beneficial effect on gun crime.

homosaur 14y ago
90% is some BS fake skewed poll run by some organization with an anti gun agenda. It's not possibly accurate. You can make any poll say anything if you word the question skewed enough.
- krschultz 14y ago
  I own guns. My parents own guns. My brother owns guns.my cousin owns 15+ guns and is a police officer. My girlfriends father owns guns. Some of us belong to the NRA. My brother and cousin going shooting a couple times a month. In some cases, we own guns that would be banned under a lot of gun control laws. My cousins response to Newton was to buy an AR15. Yet we all support background checks. I don't find the 90% number hard to believe at all.
  - mindcrime 14y ago
    Yes, but... if the question on the survey was "Do you support background checks for gun purchases?" you might, indeed, get a 90% "yes" score. But, that question would be bogus vis-a-vis the recent proposal, since background checks are already required for the majority of gun purchases. To get a meaningful response, the question would need to be "do you support even stricter background check rules than are currently in place?" and you'd really need a way to eliminate answers from people who don't know what the current rules are. So quoting that 90% number might be technically accurate for some specific question on some specific poll, but I'd question whether or not it actually reflects public sentiment on this issue, from people who actually have an informed opinion on the issue.
  - wyager 14y ago
    >Yet we all support background checks. Sure do love that anecdotal evidence.
  - homosaur 14y ago
    It's not that I'm against background checks per se, it's that they are useless in stopping crime. It's simply a feel good badge we can throw on our sashes. Plus, if we're serious about reducing gun violence, we limit handguns, not rifles. We can pat ourselves on the back and make us feel better over dead kids, but the real problem in this country with gun violence is handguns. The fact that it's all about "assault rifles" (a meaningless loaded nonsense term) shows that people are not the least bit sincere or knowledgable. I know 3 places right now I can purchase a handgun without paperwork that are not gun shows.
scottkduncan 14y ago
"As we have discussed, the most logical starting point to address gun violence is the expansion of the background check system. Incomplete or absent background checks create a gaping hole in the wall between firearms and criminals. Loopholes in the background check system give criminals unprecedented opportunity to access firearms. This problem must be remedied quickly." - National Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury, February 16, 2013 http://www.coloradofop.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&homeID=272107 http://www.coloradofop.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_...
- mindcrime 14y ago
  For another take on gun-control issues from the LEO perspective: PoliceOne’s Gun Policy & Law Enforcement survey was conducted between March 4 and March 13, 2013, receiving 15,595 responses from verified police professionals across all ranks and department sizes. http://ddq74coujkv1i.cloudfront.net/p1_gunsurveysummary_2013.pdf http://ddq74coujkv1i.cloudfront.net/p1_gunsurveysummary_2013...
  - scottkduncan 14y ago
    Well, it's an online opt-in survey so you have to keep that in mind. Also, they didn't directly poll on the question of background checks, which is the subject that gets the 80 - 90% approval rating in other polls. Instead they asked about the effect of "currently proposed White House legislation" and got a much different result.
    - mindcrime 14y ago
      Those are true points. I just wanted to point out that there isn't necessarily unanimous support for increased gun-control amongst LEOs. And regarding the FOP, I don't have a citation handy, but I'm pretty sure I've heard that a lot of the rank and file police officers differ with their leadership on gun control issues.

homosaur 14y ago

90% is some BS fake skewed poll run by some organization with an anti gun agenda. It's not possibly accurate. You can make any poll say anything if you word the question skewed enough.

krschultz 14y ago
I own guns. My parents own guns. My brother owns guns.my cousin owns 15+ guns and is a police officer. My girlfriends father owns guns. Some of us belong to the NRA. My brother and cousin going shooting a couple times a month. In some cases, we own guns that would be banned under a lot of gun control laws. My cousins response to Newton was to buy an AR15. Yet we all support background checks. I don't find the 90% number hard to believe at all.
- mindcrime 14y ago
  Yes, but... if the question on the survey was "Do you support background checks for gun purchases?" you might, indeed, get a 90% "yes" score. But, that question would be bogus vis-a-vis the recent proposal, since background checks are already required for the majority of gun purchases. To get a meaningful response, the question would need to be "do you support even stricter background check rules than are currently in place?" and you'd really need a way to eliminate answers from people who don't know what the current rules are. So quoting that 90% number might be technically accurate for some specific question on some specific poll, but I'd question whether or not it actually reflects public sentiment on this issue, from people who actually have an informed opinion on the issue.
- wyager 14y ago
  >Yet we all support background checks. Sure do love that anecdotal evidence.
- homosaur 14y ago
  It's not that I'm against background checks per se, it's that they are useless in stopping crime. It's simply a feel good badge we can throw on our sashes. Plus, if we're serious about reducing gun violence, we limit handguns, not rifles. We can pat ourselves on the back and make us feel better over dead kids, but the real problem in this country with gun violence is handguns. The fact that it's all about "assault rifles" (a meaningless loaded nonsense term) shows that people are not the least bit sincere or knowledgable. I know 3 places right now I can purchase a handgun without paperwork that are not gun shows.

scottkduncan 14y ago

"As we have discussed, the most logical starting point to address gun violence is the expansion of the background check system. Incomplete or absent background checks create a gaping hole in the wall between firearms and criminals. Loopholes in the background check system give criminals unprecedented opportunity to access firearms. This problem must be remedied quickly." - National Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury, February 16, 2013 http://www.coloradofop.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&homeID=272107 http://www.coloradofop.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_...

mindcrime 14y ago
For another take on gun-control issues from the LEO perspective: PoliceOne’s Gun Policy & Law Enforcement survey was conducted between March 4 and March 13, 2013, receiving 15,595 responses from verified police professionals across all ranks and department sizes. http://ddq74coujkv1i.cloudfront.net/p1_gunsurveysummary_2013.pdf http://ddq74coujkv1i.cloudfront.net/p1_gunsurveysummary_2013...
- scottkduncan 14y ago
  Well, it's an online opt-in survey so you have to keep that in mind. Also, they didn't directly poll on the question of background checks, which is the subject that gets the 80 - 90% approval rating in other polls. Instead they asked about the effect of "currently proposed White House legislation" and got a much different result.
  - mindcrime 14y ago
    Those are true points. I just wanted to point out that there isn't necessarily unanimous support for increased gun-control amongst LEOs. And regarding the FOP, I don't have a citation handy, but I'm pretty sure I've heard that a lot of the rank and file police officers differ with their leadership on gun control issues.