sc94597 said:
CNN's audience is hyper-liberal. Let's try a Gallup poll instead.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/159824/americans-dissatisfaction-gun-laws-spikes.aspx
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1. I fail to see how CNN's audeince can be "hyper liberal" when their programming typically goes middle of the road to conservative leaning.
2. I'd hate to hear what you thinnk about MSNBC's audience, which likely is quite liberal
3. It's irrelevant to the poll, because CNN doesn't poll its audiece. This is a random sampling of individuals, same as Gallup. And like Gallup, it has a sampling error, and also like Gallup it is VERY possible to get something quite wrong. As Gallup did last year when they gave Romney a lead in the popular vote that wasn't actually there and was in fact quite off. CNN has been far more accurate then Gallup as of late when it comes to national numbers in recent years, particularly last year. So if your preferring the Gallup poll because you think Gallup is more accurate, you might want to look at how they actually faired in 2012:
Yeah, Gallup hasn't been particularly accurate. You could even say they've been fairly Republican leaning XD. That would be unfair though, as it probably has more to do with an outdated polling methodology then anything else, especially since they were also off by a fair margin in 2008 on the side of the Democrats.
Now then, while we're sourcing Gallup polling numbers, here's some other interesting polls they conducted a few weeks prior, asking a different question and getting different results:
Americans Want Stricter Gun Laws, Still Oppose Bans
Support for strengthening gun sale laws has surged 15 percentage points since 2011
PRINCETON, NJ -- In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., Gallup finds 58% of Americans in favor of strengthening the laws covering the sale of firearms, up from 43% in 2011. Current support for stricter gun laws is the highest Gallup has measured since January 2004, but still not nearly as high as it was in the 1990s.
These results are from a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Dec. 19-22, just days after the Newtown tragedy. Gallup's prior measure of Americans' attitudes toward new gun laws was conducted in October 2011. Since then, there have been several other mass shootings in the U.S., including one in July at a Colorado movie theater that left 12 dead and more than 50 wounded. More recently, a gunman killed his boss and four others at a factory in Minneapolis in September, and in August a U.S. Army veteran opened fire in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, killing six.
Perhaps as a result of these events, the new poll also finds that a record-high 47% of Americans favor passing new gun laws, up from 35% in 2011. Since Gallup first asked this question in 2000, majorities have consistently preferred enforcing the current laws more strictly without passing new laws.
Opponents of Assault Rifle Ban Still Outnumber Proponents
Two aspects of the Newtown shooting that have been a focal point of recent discussions about gun laws are the semi-automatic rifle and high-capacity ammunition magazines used by the shooter. Several state and federal lawmakers have already announced that they will seek to ban both from the commercial market.
Nevertheless, Americans' views on the sale of assault rifles are unchanged. The slight majority, 51%, remain opposed to making it illegal to manufacture, sell, or possess semi-automatic guns known as assault rifles.
Notably, the 44% in favor of assault rifle bans in response to this trend question is nearly identical to the 42% Gallup found favoring assault and semi-automatic bans in a Dec. 18 poll. In that survey, participants responded to a question asking about possible approaches to preventing mass shootings at schools, similar to the shooting that occurred Dec. 14 in Connecticut.
Americans Favor Limits on Gun Show Sales and High-Capacity Magazines
A significantly higher percentage of Americans -- 62% -- do favor banning the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines, generally defined as those that contain more than 10 rounds. Also, nearly all Americans -- now 92%, up from 83% in 1999 -- favor laws that require people attempting to purchase guns at gun shows, including gun dealers, to undergo background checks.
Opposition to Handgun Ban Hits Record-High 74%
Despite Americans' willingness to strengthen gun laws in the wake of Sandy Hook and other deadly mass shootings, Gallup finds public opposition to a broad ban on the possession of handguns at a record-high 74%. Conversely, the 24% in favor is the lowest recorded since Gallup first asked the question in 1959.
Bottom Line
Americans favor new legislation to limit gun sales, presumably to help prevent the kind of gun violence that became all too familiar in 2012. This is seen in increased support for making the laws covering the sale of firearms more strict, and for passing new gun laws. However, views toward banning semi-automatic guns or assault rifles are unchanged, and -- possibly reflecting Americans' desire to defend themselves given the rash of high-profile gun violence -- a record-high 74% oppose preventing anyone but the police or other authorized officials from owning a handgun.
Looking at these numbers, they do match up rather nicely with what CNN found, with the exception of banning assault weapons. Interesting.
kain_kusanagi said:
Only idiots and lonely old woman agree to phone surveys. Excuse me if I don't respect the opinion of people who are too dumb or polite to hang up on an annoying and interrupting call.
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Believe what you want, but these people helped polling aggregates like fivethirtyeight predict the presidential and many state wide senate elections correctly, sometimes within less then a pecentage point. So these people do seem to represent voting America pretty well, regardless of what you think of them ;).
