Gun Control Poll in the sun sentinel

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbgun0612sbjun12,0,6466541.story

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Skeptic wrote:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbgun0612sbjun12,0,6466541.story

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Seems the antis are NOT winning this one. As of 7:50 AM EST 6/13/08

[*]
Should Florida implement stricter gun laws?

Yes, gun laws should be more strict (1541 responses)

30.8%

No, gun laws should stay how they are (660 responses)

13.2%

No, gun laws are too strict already (2725 responses)

54.5%

I don't care (71 responses)

1.4%

• 4997 total responses (Results not scientific)

stay safe.

skidmark

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• Should Florida implement stricter gun laws?
  Yes, gun laws should be more strict (1620 responses)
  
  
  31.3%
  No, gun laws should stay how they are (695 responses)
  
  
  13.4%
  No, gun laws are too strict already (2784 responses)
  
  
  53.8%
  I don't care (76 responses)
  
  
  1.5%
  • 5175 total responses (Results not scientific)
  
  If you add the two "no" responses together thats 67.2%. I would say that is an unscientific win.

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Think about this guys..... when you come across a poll like this on the Internet, you usually get a pretty accurate vote by a cross section of the public. But when the poll link is posted here and all the forum members here go to the linkand vote, thefinal results aren't anywhere near accurate any longer.

That's my opinion.:shock:

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Sheriff wrote:

Think about this guys..... when you come across a poll like this on the Internet, you usually get a pretty accurate vote by a cross section of the public. But when the poll link is posted here and all the forum members here go to the linkand vote, thefinal results aren't anywhere near accurate any longer.

That's my opinion.:shock:

Click to expand...

Wrong. These polls are NEVER a good representation of the population's opinion. First, the polls are not controlled; you can vote from your work computer, home computer, at the library and at the computer Home Depot keeps for applications, and each vote is a seperate tally. It's like voting for the American Idol; as long as you're willing to pay the charges you can vote as many times as you want. In this case it's as many times as you're willing to find a new IP address. Also, as we prove, ANYONE, regardless of where they live or what interest they have in what goes on in South Florida, can voite on these polls. You want a cross-section, you need a cross-section of people from South Florida.

Second, the antis do the same thing we do; the Brady Bunch forumlinks tothese same polls and their members pump up the party line. I'm not saying two wrongs make a right, only that if we didn't pump up our side you still wouldn't get accurate results.

Third, the news sites bias the results by placement. Read the headline of the story this pol appears on: "Florida No. 2 in nation for exporting guns used in crime". Here are some notable quotes:

• "Texas, where side arms are as popular as pork rinds, ranked third." :quirkyIn conforming to the stereotype, they fail to mention just over 1% of Texans are CHL holders and that Texas bans OC in almost all circumstances. This ain't the Wild West. And "pork rinds"? If you've been to Texas you'd know pork rinds are Yankee food; tortilla chips are the snack of choice here.
• "The number of guns actually trafficked from Georgia, Florida and Texas is likely to be even higher than the ATF reported, according to the Brady Center. Not all weapons used in crimes are recovered or are successfully traced back to gun shops." The difference is a rounding error at best, especially when you look at these numbers as a percentage of the number of guns that WEREN'T used in a crime during the same period.
• States with the fewest guns linked to crimes outside their limits were New Jersey with 35, Rhode Island with 12, and Hawaii (which had zero guns exported). :banghead:Hawaii. Imagine that; a state totally bordered by water, where the only means of getting on or off involve more provisionsof the Patriot Act than any patriot should have to endure, that has no area in which hunting is permitted (its national parks are mostly places that cannot be developed due to lava flows and virtually every native animal is a protected species) andthat will not in any circumstance issue firearms licenses, didn't have any guns originally sold in the state that were used in crimes outside the state. Just like the guy in the article says, "the solution is obvious; We need to border ourselves with an ocean".

This last tactic does two things; it first attracts only those who are very much for or against guns (more the latter than the former; hoplophobes like to self-reinforce), and second makes any average joe think twice about saying that gun laws are too strict already. In the context of the article, the answer makes no sense; how can gun laws be too strict if so many guns are ending up in criminals' hands? Of course we know the answer to that one; CRIMINALS DO NOT OBEY LAWS.

So, forget about statistical accuracy and just "win" the poll. Don't forget, statistically accurate or not, these results will invariably be used in a future article if they favor the editorial position (which in this case is well-established). All they have to say is"Recent polls show..." and unlike the more scientific surveys they do not have to back up the poll's integrity.