Fogdog
Well-Known Member
They have been taking these polls for about 40 years. At the beginning the internet didn't even exist. Methods such as online vs telephone surveys can change over time but a reputable service would test changes to keep early data consistent with later data. The article, I thought, was fair in how it both reported the data and pointed out that there are valid arguments to a claim of under-counting. The authors went out of their way to explain this yet they reported the results with conviction. Rather than cast doubt on the study, their even handed reporting added credibility to the study, to me, maybe not everybody. I don't see how a reporter who covers the possible sources of error would even write the report in this way if they thought that under-counting could be large enough to reverse their conclusions.Sure. It just seemed a little relevant, since they specifically pointed it out in the article. Any of the polls done online?
The main point that I'm selling here is that gun ownership has declined to the point where gun owners are a minority. There are many other sources of information that backs up this claim. For example, recent opinion polls show 65% to 70% of the people in this country approve of stricter gun laws. This is completely consistent with the idea that more than 2/3 of households don't own a gun. Minorities don't call the shots in a democracy. Over time, if gun ownership continues to decline and I think there is every reason for it to do so, gun owners will have less and less leverage when it comes to framing a gun regulatory scheme. I think gun nuts who are objecting to even the most reasonable of changes are only, down the road, making gun control advocates less willing to compromise with the minority special interest group of gun owners.