Don't Know Much About Gun Laws: Americans Think Gun Laws Are Stricter Than They Are

[SpartanDem]

In polls, a slight majority of Americans consistently say that we need better enforcement of our gun laws. But there’s a problem with that: many don’t really know what our gun laws are.

In a nationwide poll our firm recently conducted for the Democratic National Committee, we asked 800 voters what action they want our government to take: “enforce current gun laws more strictly but not pass new laws” or “pass new gun laws in addition to enforcing current laws more strictly.” It came as no surprise to us that they chose better enforcement by 50 percent to 43 percent. (The remainder responded “neither” or “don’t know.”)

But in the same poll, 87 percent of voters, including nearly 90 percent of gun owners, said they support background checks for all gun sales. Significant majorities of voters and of gun owners also told us they support banning military-style assault weapons along with the high-capacity magazines that enable those weapons to fire dozens of rounds without reloading.

To dig deeper into this confusion, we introduced a new series of questions. We asked this same group of voters whether or not specific laws were already on the books. Of the 50 percent of people who prefer enforcement over new laws — over half of whom are gun owners — 48 percent told us that federal laws prohibit the purchase of a weapon privately or at a gun show without a background check, while 10 percent simply admitted not knowing the rules. In other words, about 6 out of 10 people who believe we just need to do a better job of enforcing existing laws don’t realize that those laws are far weaker than they think. And just under half of those who want better enforcement don’t know that military-style assault weapons are, in fact, legal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/opinion/sunday/dont-know-much-about-gun-laws.html?_r=0


Wonder why a policy like universal background checks can be so popular, but is so difficult to pass. You have your answer a significant part of the populace believes that it's already the law.

[ManiacJoe]

1. Implementation methods matter.

Wonder why a policy like universal background checks can be so popular, but is so difficult to pass.

There are multiple ways to implement it. NY state did a reasonable version. The current federal bill is not so reasonable.

Is a sample size of 800 for a 310 million population really a significant sample size? (Not that I would expect a larger sample to show more knowledge from the masses.)

[SpartanDem]

3. Yes. It's basic statistics.

It's matter far more than the sample be representative of population, in fact population is almost irrelevant for all but the smallest population size. Look any major poll and they generally poll 600-1000 people. The rate of confidence in polls declines big time beyond 1,000. Around 1000 it's around +/- 3% in order to get to 1% you'd have to poll close to 10,000, it simply not worth the additional cost in most case to poll that many people.

[pipoman]

2. It doesn't help having terms...lies..

like "gun show loophole" bouncing around which has nothing to do with gun shows, and isn't a "loophole" by anyone's definition..

"Universal background checks" will never happen at the federal level because the federal government has no jurisdiction to regulate intrastate commerce between two residents of the same state who are not engaged in the business of selling guns..the commerce clause is the problem. So, we'll do what we always do. Send a bill/bills to congress and the senate requiring intrastate sales be subject to NICS checks. The bill/bills will not make it out of committee because they would lose a SCOTUS challenge based on the commerce clause. Gun controllers will lie about that too and continue flogging the "gun show loophole" fiction until the next tragedy occurs when they will trot out the same bills which will again not work and they can blame the NRA again till next time...

It really is no wonder people who don't follow this issue are confused about what is and what isn't legal with bone heads on both sides lying and not saying what they know to be true...it is sad..