Hit this poll

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Ryanxia said:
Always helps when anyone else reading articles see that most of these polls show the opposite of what the main stream media usually pushes.
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I agree, but how much does it actually help? It's an unscientific poll, so it doesn't mean that 92% of people are against the proposed gun control laws. Heck, it doesn't even mean that a majority of people are against those laws. All it means is that a lot more gun-rights supporters happened to visit the site and vote, probably mostly due to threads like these.

The average gun-rights supporter tends be more involved than the average gun-control supporter: For many of us, guns aren't just a political position, they're a passion and a way of life. Therefore it's easier to get us to vote in online polls, just like the OP got us to vote. And that's why these unscientific polls tend to lean our way so often. But that doesn't mean they reflect the general public's views at large.

But like I said, it sure can't hurt; and if even one middle-of-the-road person reconsiders their stance after seeing the 92% ratio, then we've helped accomplish something.
 
Do you support stricter gun laws in Rhode Island? (674 votes)

Yes: 8% (56)
No: 92% (618) :)
 
Theohazard - that's all any poll is, it's just the results of the opinions of those who take it. Doesn't actually mean it counts towards the whole nation, or even state, city, etc.

But the polls are out there and they are referenced in news articles, so they can show our side or the other, take your pick. :)
 
Ryanxia said:
Theohazard - that's all any poll is, it's just the results of the opinions of those who take it. Doesn't actually mean it counts towards the whole nation, or even state, city, etc.
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That's not true at all. A scientific poll conducted using random sampling can be fairly accurate if done correctly. Those kinds of polls are completely different than polls like these.

Ryanxia said:
But the polls are out there and they are referenced in news articles, so they can show our side or the other, take your pick.
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Almost all polls referenced in news articles are scientific polls conducted by professional polling firms. Those polls are completely different. The polls like the one you linked are unscientific polls and therefore almost nobody takes them seriously; they're simply novelty surveys.
 
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WE don't take them seriously but your average reader might. I'm referring to when an online news outlet comes out with an article and says, "in our recent poll, 84% of readers agreed that gun laws need to be stricter." They refer to their own novelty poll in several articles that I've seen in the past to support their biased article of how gunz R bad. :)

And it seems like most of the 'scientific polls' generated by anti-gun groups "randomly sample" a very distinct group of people. There were examples of this last year when they were pushing hard for more gun control.

Just my thoughts anyway.
 
Ryanxia said:
And it seems like most of the 'scientific polls' generated by anti-gun groups "randomly sample" a very distinct group of people. There were examples of this last year when they were pushing hard for more gun control.
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This is definitely true. It's not hard to skew the results of a scientific poll. I think the main way they do this is by asking the question in a certain way: When pollsters ask, "Do you support background checks on all gun purchases," of course most people answer, "Yes." Then they use those polls to claim that a vast majority of the country supports regulating and tracking private gun sales, when in fact most people don't understand how our current background check system works. If that same poll asked, "All guns purchased from dealers already require background checks, but do you support extending the background check requirement to all private transfers, even those between relatives and friends, and then enforcing this through universal gun registration?", I'm sure they'd get different results.

I mostly only pay attention to the polls conducted by reputable firms like Gallup and Rasmussen. And even then, I'm much more likely to pay attention if another firm conducted the same poll and got similar results. It also helps to read the exact questions that they asked.
 
You're right Theo, and many of us gun owners understand this tactic now. But your average Joe won't put that much thought into it when they hear about these 'results'.
 
That's a good point. And like I said, voting in polls like this one sure as heck can't hurt.

I just checked the page again. It's still at 92% to 8%. That big a ratio definitely stands out, especially because you see it as a bar graph. Is the Providence Journal the primary newspaper in Rhode Island? What are its political leanings? If it's a major newspaper and it's not seen as primarily right-wing, the poll results could definitely make some people take note.
 
Theohazard said:
I don't know how much good it can do, but it sure can't hurt. So I voted.
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What it does is keep these unscientific polls from being reported on in a way unfavorable to us. Call me a cynic, but I'm betting if it were strongly the other way it might find itself mentioned in a news story or editorial, as in "90% of our readers agree we need stricter laws..."

We absolutely need to hit these kinds of polls because we need to deny resources to the opposition.
 
I went in to vote and the page got darkened out and a popup that said, "Press{click} to Keep Reading".
I am always suspicious of them sorts of popups and so I exited out of the page.
Did anyone else get that popup and what happens when You press to continue reading ???
I watch the Fox new a lot, also some of the other news stations on the TV too.
I have seen these types of polls shown in some of the news casts, even in the obama care types of news casts.
It seems that I have seen some of them mentioned about gun control laws too.
 
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