CNN reporting that support for stricter gun-control laws appears to be dropping

[ATCclears]

See below. It makes me nervous though since the rhetoric from the gun-control crowd will only go higher on the next incident.

Peter



Support for stricter gun control laws appears to be dropping, a CNN/ORC International poll shows, roughly a year after the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 26 people dead.

The poll came out today, just before 911 calls were released from the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

According to the survey, 49% of Americans say they support stricter gun control laws, with 50% opposed. The 49% support is down six percentage points from the 55% who said they backed stricter gun control in January, just a few weeks after the tragedy. Adam Lanza killed 20 students and six teachers before killing himself.

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[U201491]

Totally bullpucky poll ! I do noit trust one thing CNN does either way.
They always lead everything down the leftist path before they are done.
But one thing is very true.
Most people do not want gun control,
they want criminals removed from the streets.

 

[mancat]

Here is a link to the actual article:

CNN Poll: Support for stricter gun control fades ? CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

In their survey data PDF, it shows only 843 people interviewed, with a margin of error of about 4%.

Even when such a study shows gun control support dropping, that's still a woefully inadequate sample size - just like the infamous "90% of Americans want background checks" Quinnipiac poll that only polled about 1,800 people in mostly northeastern states.

 

[rufus]

Kinda like how they poll dinglebarry's approval numbers inside the DNC headquarters.

 

[simon99]

Polls don't mean much to me, I can make the numbers work in my favor simply by calling the right people. That's how these BS polls work.

 

[Mark W.]

where did the 843 people live? Cause if they were big city dwellers or from a high crime area (yea I know there the same demographic) then its a total joke. Wonder how many people in urban Texas or Idaho they polled LOL

 

[BigStick]

When you start talking statistics, it is crazy how small of a sample size can actally be representative. That being said, who you ask and what you ask are crucial.

What the people they ask think "gun control" means, and what they make it out to mean could be entirely different worlds of thought.

 

[mancat]

It's crazy how small a sample size statisticians say is represenatative. The rest of us look at their data and say "no bubbleguming way is 843 out of 315+ million EVER representative."

 

[mortar maggot]

Polls pretty much depend on how the question/s are worded.

example- Would you support a new gun law that prevented psychotic, violently mentally ill people from buying a gun?

Well I am sure 99% of America would agree to that on the surface, but no law will prevent that person from buying a gun and still allow the rest of us to buy a gun.

 

[CamoDeafie]

It's crazy how small a sample size statisticians say is represenatative. The rest of us look at their data and say "no bubbleguming way is 843 out of 315+ million EVER representative."

house of Representatives have been capped at 435 since 1960; even though the Constitution in Amendment 14, Article 1, says ":

The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative".....

so 315 million divided by 30,000 should have given us 10,500 Representatives.... the majority would've been California...,,

so applying your logic, no bubbleguming way is 435 out of 315 million representative for the US government...... but it is what it is...even though population has grown like a moon shot since 1960.

 

[coop44]

a poll or statistics can be skewed to any angle the people compiling or reading the data want. Why any one still considers them relevant is ridiculous.

 

[mancat]

house of Representatives have been capped at 435 since 1960; even though the Constitution in Amendment 14, Article 1, says ":

The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative".....

so 315 million divided by 30,000 should have given us 10,500 Representatives.... the majority would've been California...,,

so applying your logic, no bubbleguming way is 435 out of 315 million representative for the US government...... but it is what it is...even though population has grown like a moon shot since 1960.

has zero in common with the accuracy of polling sample sizes.

it is a representatives's JOB to listen to his constituents and do what he can to represent the will of the voters. he receives tangible input from voters in the realm of thousands of messages a month.

putting political realities aside, one can assume that if a representative is doing his job, he likely has input from a large pool of constituents as a basis to form his political approach.

a random person asked to participate in a poll is just that - a random person with their own opinions, based only on information gleaned from interpersonal relationships, personal experience, media consumption, etc.

obviously one can be called a "representative," the other is just a plain old person.

 

[BigStick]

It's crazy how small a sample size statisticians say is represenatative. The rest of us look at their data and say "no bubbleguming way is 843 out of 315+ million EVER representative."

When looking at pure statistics, not manipulated by intentional targeting or manipulative questions, a sample of just over 1000 people (randomly representative) can give 95% confidence in a result with a +/- 3% margin for error for a population of 315,000,000. It is hard to get your head around, but when you get into the math, it actually makes sense.

That being said, it still requires unbiased selection and implimentation to be truly accurate. Most of the polls you see are neither.

 

[Hawaiian]

It is dropping because the Dems in swing districts saw what happened in Colorado. Hopefully they won't forget it and will focus on the important issues that most all Americans agree on. The economy, jobs, education.