78-12-B2
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Polls and Guns[edit]
Transcript[edit]Polls and poll taking have become a standard bit of Americana but maybe we should know a little more than we do about how the questions are asked. I'll be right back. To paraphrase the great statesman Disraeli, "There are lies, expletive deleted lies and statistics." Now I'm not going to be that forceful about polls but we should know more than we do about how the questions are phrased by the pollsters and whether a certain public relations result is the goal of the organization or individual paying for the poll. A few years ago in a Washington economic conference, a lady who heads up a large financial house put her finger on the matter of polling. She said, "Ask a citizen if he'd like government to provide a certain service for the people and the answer probably be 'yes.'" But then she said, "Give the citizen a hundred dollar bill, and ask him if he'd like the service if it meant giving up the hundred dollar bill." But what brought all this to mind was the widespread press coverage given to a poll in which apparently 84% of Americans favor stringent handgun control and registration. A third of those polled would even ban the manufacture of such weapons. Now frankly I don't support this kind of gun control and I've never before seen evidence that the American people are that up in arms about arms, if I may coin a phrase, so I did a little checking. This particular poll was conducted by a reputable firm so I'm not inferring that pollsters are guilty of falsification. But the sponsor of this poll was the Center for the Study and Prevention of Handgun Violence and it was taken on the ocassion of the tenth anniversary of the tragic assassination of Robert Kennedy. A little more than a year ago, another reputable pollster was commissioned by the Second Amendment Foundation which defends our right under the second amendment to bear arms. This poll found that 54% of Americans believe the answer to violent crime lies in stiffer punishment. Only 10% would outlaw hand guns, in fact when the question was asked do you think gun controls have helped to reduce crimes committed with guns 67% said no. Possibly we need to augment polling with some more comprehensive research. A University of Washington sociologist in a 1971 study found that gun control laws have no significant effect on violence beyond what can be attributed to background social conditions. Spoken like a true sociologist. But he also found that gun control laws do not limit access to guns by those who intend doing violence. Much more recently a survey of six thousand law enforcement officers found that 80% feel gun control laws have no effect on crime and 83% believe criminals would benefit more than citizens from the banning of handguns. In other words, the laws would make it hard for the law abiding but not the criminal to get a gun. Maybe the only poll that's really reliable is the one taken in liberal Massachusetts in 1976. A referendum to ban ownership of handguns was on the ballot in the November election. The voters of Massachusetts defeated it three to one. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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