Gun Poll

[dailydave21]

Gun Poll worth taking

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I came across this site while surfing the web and i think it's really worth taking.

it's just a few quick questions about gun rights:
- if everyone had a gun, would the crime rate go up/down?
- do you own a gun?
- and what types of guns (if any) the 2nd amendment protect?

when youre done you get to sort through all of the results which is actually pretty cool

Right now it seems like there's a lot of gun nuts and i think it would be great if we could help balance out the results a little.

http://www.thegunpoll.com



-dailydave

[iverglas]

1. already freeped enough, friend

Deadly force is morally acceptable in which of the following situations

A burglar breaks into someone's home - 77%

A death penalty / execution for violent criminals - 65%


How many guns do you have at home?

4 or more - 69%


Do you know anyone injured or killed by a gun?

No - 81%


Gender

Male - 92%


Location

Rural - 34%

I don't think I've seen a survey with respondents as unrepresentative of a population in my life.

Or as dishonest - 81% of respondents (almost all of whom are male) know NO ONE who has been "injured or killed by a gun"?

Fer fuck's sake, I'm a woman living in Canada and I know TWO people who have been killed by firearm. A client murdered by a family member's estranged husband with a handgun, and the child of an intimate partner who killed himself with a family hunting weapon (actually I never knew him, he was dead when I met his father, but my life was affected by that death).


Maybe if you posted this in another forum ... like, oh, Women's Rights ...

[AtheistCrusader]

4. The owners of the poll are remarkably anonymous.

I wouldn't trust the results of the survey any farther than I could pitch the server it's hosted on.

Hosted by GoDaddy.Com, actual ownership hidden by domainsbyproxy.com.
Fun times. So who is, 'the gun poll'? Not a human in sight associated with this website.

[Aventurier]

13. Wow

I ... might hold similar views had I been personally affected by such mindless brutality and loss.

Thankfully you are the rare exception; you are buried in the ten-thousandth percentile with people who enjoy roller-blading with their pet leopards, and married people who were unfortunate enough to be struck by lightning while golfing with their lover. You occupy the esteemed platform of those whose lives have been altered by killer bee attacks while conducting seismological experiments, and those whose minds have been permanently changed by being bitten by a pet monitor lizard while delivering a package on Midsummer's Eve.

If every human being were able to fully experience a level of mind-altering loss as you have, the human race might not be as disposed to violence as it is.

But they are not, much the pity. So the debate goes on ...

[iverglas]

15. yeah, yeah, yeah

There are 10,000 homicides by firearm A YEAR in the US (and that, of course, doesn't suicides and accidents, let alone injuries), and 92% of the respondents have never known anyone killed or injured by firearm??

I guess the troops abroad don't count ...


I'm sorry. They're just flat out lying.

A poll of regulars here would produce higher results than that.


But then of course you were being sarcastic, in that charming poetic way.

The two people I have known who were killed by firearm don't actually count.




Suicides, not suidices. My own spellcheck fixes those things for me ....

[Aventurier]

17. ...

I tried to send you a PM, but I cannot.

If you want to bring professional soldiers into the gun debate, then let's dance. I will assume that was merely a jest on your part because your position there is a historically difficult one to defend (I'm sure the Palestinians would agree with me). Therefore I will not press that issue; you can run away with it but I will not participate. All such deaths in recent memory are tragic and pointless so you're barking up the wrong tree if you want to foment an argument with me.

I meant no offense, and I apologize if you felt wronged. That was never my intention.

I'm sure you will agree that the number of people who have been personally affected by not ONE, but TWO violent deaths ... is quite low. Horribly tragic, but insignificantly low. Even if every one of the ten-thousand homicides in the USA affected the same person twice, it would still be an immeasurably small group of unfortunate souls affected; a heroic and possibly tragic portion of our species, wrought out of despair and violence and full of righteous vigor, with good sound reason behind every action, buttressed by experience.

But you are special and different; more people own bobcats than have been so affected; more people are trapeze artists. There are more people who own gulfstream jets than have been personally connected to two firearm-related deaths. More of us have six fingers on both hands AND both feet.

I cannot possibly relate to your experience, honestly, and have no right whatsoever to speak about it - since I have never met nor known anyone who has been changed so much by any one such act, much less two. But I do know a person with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. The percentages are similar (within an order of magnitude anyway) so I assume you'll see the significance; if only my friend was able to cope as well as you!

Perhaps I live a charmed life, rather than an average one. I like to think I am merely living an average life. Tomorrow I might die a horrible death and start to agree with you. But I am still entitled to my opinion, the real me, as I am today - even if it be a hopelessly mundane opinion unscarred by any traumas and therefore mild and uninspiring, with no heroics of any flavor.

Thank you for calling me poetic. Your writings are good; I believe you are swaying people to your side very effectively and you should be proud of yourself for accomplishing your goal.

[valhalla]

18. Do the math

10,000 people is about 0.003% of the U.S. Population. I know one person injured by a firearm, and no one killed. I know far more injured or killed by alcohol.

[iverglas]

22. indeed

So, the question on the table was:

"Do you know anyone injured or killed by a gun?"

Some really fast math, now. Wiki says:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States

Many suffer non-fatal gunshot wounds, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating 52,447 deliberate and 23,237 accidental non-fatal gunshot injuries in the United States during 2000.<6> The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides,<7> with firearms used in 16,907 suicides in the United States during 2004.

So we have 10,000 firearms homicides a year, let's use round numbers and say 15,000 firearms suicides, and 75,000 firearms injures. That gives us 100,000. Per year.

Let's say a survey respondent is 30, so has 20 years of awareness of things like people dying.

That's 2,000,000. Two million firearms deaths and injuries occurring within the 20 years during which the survey respondent was aware of things going on around him/her -- 200,000 firearms homicides alone in 20 years (using the recent annual figures arbitrarily). Do you people really never do the math?

Not 10,000.

Two million is indeed still less than 1% of the US population. (I mean, thankfully; otherwise, the numbers would look more like civil war.)

Two people killed by firearm, that's a tiny percentage of the people I had known by the time I was 35 when my client was murdered. I knew 100 people, say, by name, in the small town where I lived for three months, where the boy had committed suicide with the hunting rifle. Had I lived there all my life, I would have known many more. In the neighbourhood where I grew up, I knew more than 100 people by name on my block alone by the time I was 10. Quite probably I know more people who have been injured or killed by firearm than I realize.

So yeah, when 92% of respondents to a survey in the US, assuming they are adults, say they have known NO ONE injured or killed by firearm, somebody's lying.

But no, sorry though I am to disappoint, the deaths in question did not really have any noticeable effect on me. I was involved with the boy's father for a few months and moved on -- I do know the death had a huge effect on that family, of course. The client, I continued to assist her family for a while afterward with the problem for which she had consulted me (the death did give me more argument for the decision we were seeking from the government), and that was the end of that.

Just a regular folk, moi.

[X_Digger]

26. Even distribution?

Seems like you're assuming flat distribution of those incidents. Nor does it account for someone who's experienced more than one incident (entirely likely in a troubled area).

[iverglas]

28. nah

Not assuming anything.

Just saying. Horseshit.

[gorfle]

25. I don't know anyone..

Or as dishonest - 81% of respondents (almost all of whom are male) know NO ONE who has been "injured or killed by a gun"?

I don't know anyone who has been killed or injured by a gun. My step-mother's sister's husband committed suicide with one, but I don't know the sister and I didn't know her husband.

I am not surprised by the lack of people who know someone injured or killed by a gun, especially on the internet. I suspect that a significant portion of firearm violence involves thug-on-thug violence. Another significant portion of firearm violence involves people living in poverty. Neither of these groups is likely to be well represented on internet forums.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Why is it a 'good poll'?

Who is running this poll? The about page contains barely anything at all. No idea who's running it. No idea what the data will be used for. For all you know this is to identify which homes contain guns, via IP, for theft purposes.

It's extremely recent, looks like it was put up in the last week. How exactly did you say you came across it, again?

[ZombieHorde]

3. I took the poll- my answers

If guns were more easily available, the crime rate would -
stay the same

The 2nd amendment "right to keep and bear arms" gives individual citizens the right to own: -
No guns at all
Handguns
Shotguns
Hunting rifles
Assault rifles

Deadly force is morally acceptable in which of the following situations -
To protect oneself or one's children from a heinous crime
Soldiers in war

How many guns do you have at home?
0

Do you know anyone injured or killed by a gun? -
Yes

Country -
United States

Location -
Suburb

[iverglas]

8. I love it

The 2nd amendment "right to keep and bear arms" gives individual citizens the right to own: -
No guns at all

Of course it does!

I would bet you're the only person who realized that -- I know I didn't. ;)

[ZombieHorde]

9. If I had to own a gun, then it would not be a right.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. I miss your avatar..

:(

[ZombieHorde]

11. It will come back.

I temporally changed it to the gay zombie to show solidarity with gay DUers. It is so small though, that I don't know if anyone knows what it is.

edit to add: I love the happy zombie in my previous avatar.

[iverglas]

12. yes ... I did get it

when smacked with it. ;)

[BlueCollar]

5. This "gun nut" appreciates the link

and for the record:

I drink

I smoke

I drive an SUV

I enjoy NASCAR racing

I'm a member of the ACLU

I support Amnesty International

I'm a Veteran of the United States Armed Forces


and I'm a registered Democrat in the State of Texas....

any questions?

[oneshooter]

6. Not if your in Texas

"and I'm a registered Democrat in the State of Texas...."

If so then you ain't IN Texas. There is no registration of party affiliation in the State of Texas.

Long time lurker, this is my first post.
Gonna be very interesting!!!

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

[Wwagsthedog]

7. Welcome aboard from a fellow Texan

You should post more. It's good for the soul and requires only thick skin for armament.

[oneshooter]

24. I plan to. n/t

[BlueCollar]

20. does registered voter consistently voting "Democrat"

make a difference? or are we going to split hairs...

[oneshooter]

23. Yes it does

In Texas you can vote in either party's primary. If you were a "registered Democrat" as in some states you could only vote in the Democratic primary.

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

[ZombieHorde]

19. I am not a gun nut, but I play one in a video game.

[benEzra]

14. One problem with the poll...

is that in the "kinds of guns the 2ndA protects" poll, there isn't a place to put the most popular rifles in America. It only offers you the choice of hunting rifles and military assault rifles, but most rifles in U.S. homes are neither hunting rifles nor machineguns. So if you believe the 2ndA protects ordinary nonhunting rifles (whether straight-stocked .22's or AR-15's), you either have to put them under "hunting rifles" or "assault rifles."

It looks to me as if it may be a student project or something. It is certainly not a scientific poll, as the respondents are self-selected, and the "kinds of guns" question isn't the only one that's ambiguous.

[X_Digger]

16. I noticed that..

Also.. "Do you have any friends or family who have been injured or killed in a gun related incident?"

A friend pinched her thumb cleaning her 1911, does that count?

[jmg257]

21. Cool, thanks! Got my pro-gun answers in!

[dailydave21]

27. about the poll

one of my friends sent me the poll in an email. not sure how he found out about it. i still think its pretty cool even if it's not scientific. it's still fun to hear what people think. plus the way you get to group them seems fun

it is a little self selecting -- it seems like mostly gun owners took the poll, probably because tehy are the most interested in it. maybe we could help balance it out a bit...

here's the link again: http://www.thegunpoll.com

[AlinPA]

29. I took the poll, typed in the key numbers and hit finish and it won't let me see results. I did it

twice.