I thought about posting this in the Pit, but decided I’m not really angry about it, just kind of confused and a little bit frightened for the country.
There was a story on the WGN (Chicago) news last night about a number of simultaneous open-carry rallies in states where it’s legal. The video showed numerous people walking around with various types of handguns and rifles at their sides. If the carriers encountered any resistance or if there was any violence or trouble, the story didn’t say so. Everything looked pretty copacetic.
This was followed by a report that Congress had passed a bill specifically allowing registered owners to carry guns in National Parks.
Then, they presented the daily audience text-poll question: “Do you think the government is infringing on the public’s right to bear arms?”
At the end of the broadcast, the results were 80% Yes, 20% No.
80%? Huhwuhhh??? What “infringing” are these people seeing that I’m not?
Um… if the story was broadcast to people in Chicago, then the answer seems obvious. They were able to contrast the freedom seen in the rallies with their own city, where such an event would be utterly illegal.
Now that I read the OP again, I notice it was a “daily text poll,” though, which means it wasn’t a poll at all, so the results are meaningless. It’s just one of those stupid, self-selected, television pseudo-polls. The answer to the OP is that the result doesn’t reflect anything accurate about public opinion. It’s the same as a push button internet “poll.” It’s not a representative sample or a scientifically valid methodology. It’s worthless.
Oh, you’re right about that kind of poll. And part of the problem with any kind of poll is that they tend to be worded rather vaguely, and to not have any choices other than “yes” or “no”.
This bill was passed, and signed into law by President Obama, but all it does is bring the gun laws in National Parks in line with the guns laws of the state that the park is in. The intent is for the gun laws to be the same inside the park as outside in the rest of the state, that is all. Not much of a radical change.
Not at all, and it wasn’t my intention to say, “Oh my God, the gun nuts are running rampant!!” or anything like that.
I’m not a gun owner myself, but I know several and they’re decent, law-abiding, non-crazy people. I don’t fear them.
It’s just that despite all the hand-wringing from the right, the current administration seems to have gone out of its way to not infringe on gun owners’ rights, and I was surprised that (even in such a useless unscientific poll) the results were so lopsided in the other direction.
I barely caught this on the news, but if I heard it right, there were basically two different rallies, one on park land where they were able to carry the weapons, and another in DC where they still were not able to carry the same weapons. The folks at the rally were making the point that the nation’s capital infringes on their constitutional right to bear arms.
Since the people at the rallies themselves were bringing up the issue of gun control as a whole (and not just related to the parks) it only makes sense that the TV poll would be of a similarly wider scope.
Yes. And DC seems to have decided to fight this issue the whole way. Rather than accept the Supreme Court’s ruling, they have executed some extremely minor change to the law and left it to the populace to bear the expense of challenging it through the court system. The city continues to use its zoning laws, for example, to deny permission to operate any gun stores, and this means that residents cannot purchase firearms – federal law prohibits gun dealers from transfering firearms to out-of-state residents.