Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Gallup Poll on Gun Ownership

Unfortunately you have to pay to see the actual poll, but the reports I've been seeing are like this one. I'm expecting this one will be as flawed as most, probably worse.

The typical problem that you find with this type of poll was well outlined in Kleck and Kates book Point Blank. The main problem comes with people who aren't legally allowed to posses weapons will not trust the pollster and will not report their possession. Then there are the people who lie about ownership either in affirmation or denial. The complexity of this polls results are difficult to analyze without access to the methodology.

Of course, they have to throw in the old Opinion question.

But do guns make you safer? “Americans are divided on the topic,” Gallup reports, with 46% saying that having a gun in the home makes it a more dangerous place to be, and 42% saying guns make households safer.

But who did they ask? What was the size of the polled group, and how representative was it of the American public?

I'm just going to pitch this one into the dumper.

2 comments:

Granted said...

This sounds like shite. Polling, especially this sort of polling, is notoriously innacurate. The questions are far too easily slanted or even loaded. It's a crock. However, Gallup is better than Zogby at this sort of thing, so...

geekwife said...

Well, does it really matter what people THINK about guns in the home making them safer? Let's just see the facts on whether it actually does or not.