New Poll Proves Gun Banner Polls were False

Freddy’s Note: This is an important article that disputes the Bloomberg/anti-guns claims about 90% of Americans support expanded background checks

Originally posted here

Earlier this year Nate Silver assured people that there were solid polls showing “Overwhelming majorities of 80 to 90 percent of the public say they favor background checks.”  On Monday, soon to be former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Shannon Watts (with Moms Demand Action) repeated the claim and make the related point that even among NRA members “74 percent support background checks for all gun sales” (this last poll number was paid for by Bloomberg).  Indeed the notion that the NRA isn’t representing members of the NRA has become a common claim made by gun control organizations.  But there were a couple major problems with these poll numbers: 1) People were really just being asked about whether they wanted to keep criminals from getting guns, not about a particular piece of legislation.  2) The surveys asked a vague question with no information on how the current system works.

There was a poll in April by the PEW Research Center that gets at the first issue and I think is much more accurate.  It asks people whether they are happy that the Senate gun control bill was stopped in April.  Apparently, both Republicans and Independents are generally happy that it was stopped by 51-to-34 and 48-to-41 margins.  My guess is that Republican Senators are paying a lot more attention to what Independents and Republicans wanted than Democrats who would never have voted for the Republicans anyway.  It looks to me that Republicans voted the way that their constituents wanted.  So Republicans shouldn’t really care that among all voters the poll showed support of 47 to 39 percent.  If you want to explain why Republican Senators voted against the measure, you should look at the results by political affiliation.

Many, such as the New York Times, paint a picture of Senators who both simultaneously opposed the will of 90 percent of their voters and at the same time quake in fear of the NRA. Here is a piece by Joe Nocera at the New York Times on April 19th:

The four Democrats — along with many Republicans — quake in fear of the National Rifle Association. In 1994, Baucus voted in favor of the assault rifle ban — and then nearly lost his re-election bid. He never again stood up to the N.R.A. Yes, his phones were undoubtedly jammed this week. Still, it seemed to me that his unanswered phone was a potent symbol. I could almost picture him cowering in his office, waiting for us to stop asking why he sold the country down the river. . . .

Note in Baucus’ case, he is retiring and yet he still voted against the so-called “universal background check” bill, so it really isn’t clear what the NRA could do to him at this point in his career.

Relatedly, people simply don’t care strongly about gun control.  Gallup’s survey regularly asks people: “What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?”  Note that this included gun control issues beyond background checks and it includes people on both sides of the issue (those who think either more or less gun control is extremely important), but even so very few people put gun control as a top issue.  Just take the numbers from earlier this year: January 2013 4%, February 2013 6%, March 2013 4%, September 2013  1%, October 2013 1%, November 2013 <1%, and December 2013  <1%.

The second problem with these polls is that the news media has done a horrible job describing what the current rules are and what the changes would accomplish.  Part of this fits in with President Obama’s and the media’s numerous false statement “as many as 40 percent of all gun purchases take place without a background check” (even the Washington Post eventually noted that this state was clearly false).  When Americans are given some details about the current system polls give dramatically different results.  For example, when they are told that “A vast majority of guns sold at gun shows are sold by licensed dealers who are required by federal law to conduct background checks before guns are sold,” a National Shooting Sports Foundation poll had to do what other surveys refused to do and found a clear majority of Americans don’t think that additional federal laws are required.  It would be nice if other surveys tried to provide some similar information.

Another survey from April found that few Americans actually thought that background checks would be beneficial.  A Rasmussen survey found: “Only 41% believe more background checks will reduce gun violence.”