Gun Survey's From Outer Space
Leftists Now Inventing Silliness — Convincing No One
During the 2016 presidential election democrats were flaunting surveys they claimed showed 90 percent of the public favored something they called “universal background checks.” They never defined that, or what questions they asked, or who they asked or who did the surveys. Nancy Pelosi released a direct mail promo for democrats claiming, on the envelope, 92 percent of the public supported this undefined thing. Where did she get the extra two points? Your guess is as good as hers.
The democrats of course got trounced. It seems 92 percent of the public didn’t agree with them on most anything else too. And if you think about it, 92 percent of the public doesn’t agree on virtually anything in this country. But America’s left wing is so consumed with hatred for the decent kinds of people who read magazines like this one, reality no longer matters, and their so-called surveys evidence this fact.
They have gotten so out of touch with reality — and so against our arms — they want to believe 92 percent of us seek central-command federal gun registration disguised as “checks” of some sort. It said so right there on this scientific-survey envelope, can’t you read?
They are willing to promote the literally lunatic idea, despite America’s enormous divides, we’re somehow magically completely in sync on what they call “gun control.”
But wait, there’s more.
The city of Chicago has released a police study almost on par with its city-hall politics. But the highly regarded Quinnipiac University conducted it, so it must be credible. Even if it doesn’t pass the sniff test — support for the leftist gun-control plan is now at 95 percent.
Were You Asked?
When asked randomly last year at the 2017 SHOT Show, the annual gathering of firearm-industry trade-show participants, if they had ever been reached for a gun survey like the ones now being bandied, the responses were as loud as a shooting range closed for the night. A similar response comes from other right-of-center venues. Try it yourself, ask anyone you know. But that’s an unscientific survey, so it counts for nothing. The jury will disregard these remarks, please.
Some scientific journal somewhere might show the questions, the standards of deviation, mean and median results, the sort of technical jargon pollsters use to justify and legitimatize their results — technobabble neither you, I, nor reporters can easily comprehend — or see. Without looking, I’d be willing to bet the questions I’ll ask in a moment were not in the survey. They couldn’t be — and get the results they love.
Remember, people who commission or undertake surveys have a bias. If these recent surveys came out concluding Americans want to cling to their guns and bibles by a hundred million or more, how much PR do you think it would get? That’s right — you wouldn’t know the survey existed. You’d only hear a radical left-wing president say countless Americans, “cling to their guns and bibles,” disparagingly, and that would get press, bad press, forever. But miraculously, it wouldn’t show up in surveys.
So write to the editor here and let us know if you’ve been surveyed, and what it was like. Let us know if you think the 95 percent survey could have included the very reasonable questions below and gotten such a skewed result. Tell us what you think the left means when they ask about a “background check.” Then read what the last one they introduced and promoted actually was, the Manchin-Toomey bill — national gun-owner registration — at GunLaws.com (use the blue NewStuff button). Or the McCain gun-show background “loophole” bill, designed to close gun shows permanently (read it in the same place).
Our Own Survey
We would love (love is a good thing) to hear the responses to this essay-question in one of their surveys. But since you can’t quantify an essay, there’s no way they’ll ask. That doesn’t mean it would be less interesting or valuable, just that you will never hear its revealing answers.
1. When people speak about firearm background checks, what do you think that means?
2. There’s an FBI background check required for every retail gun sale from dealers in America, whether at gun shows or at stores. True or false?
3. When the required background check identifies criminals trying to buy guns, those people get their money back and are sent away. On a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being complete agreement and 5 complete disagreement, do you support this program?
4. When criminals who attempted to buy guns get their money back and are sent away, including convicted felons, fugitives, illegal aliens, arsonists, domestic abusers and similar ineligible buyers, law-enforcement almost never follows up. On the same scale from 1 to 5, do you support this policy?
5. No one knows if criminals who fail background checks take their money and then buy firearms privately on the black market. If background checks were extended to include private non-dealer sales, do you believe these people would obey that? Yes or no.
6. In 2009, out of six million background checks, although 71,000 people were turned away, authorities only prosecuted 77, and convictions, if any, weren’t reported. Do you support this approach? Yes or no.
7. The background check system includes an on-off switch for gun sales under complete control of the president. Would you support this under Obama? Yes or no. Would your answer change if it was President Hillary? How about President Trump?
8. Scientific analysis shows up to 99 percent of background checks prevent gun sales with “false positives,” meaning innocent U.S. citizens are denied their constitutional rights without charges, a trial, due process, an ability to confront an accuser, and by prior restraint, all banned by the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Bill of Rights. Do you believe this is proper? Yes or no.
9. Do any constitutional violations in the prior question matter? Yes or no.
10. If you were aware there is another way to screen out criminals from buying guns at retail without the problems described, called BIDS, the Blind Identification System, which works like wanted posters instead of sending the names of every innocent gun buyer to the FBI, and at a fraction of the cost, might you support it? Yes or no.
Bonus question: Would you like to ask me anything about the NICS background-check system the mass media claims has huge public support?
It’s bad enough the mass media tries to convince the public to vote based on surveys, with results skewed toward who ran the survey (think Hillary, 2016). When the Constitution is put up for grabs with surveys defying law and logic, to a public and journalists who will swallow sludge and smile — society is in serious straits.
Alan Korwin’s website features plain-English books on state and federal gun laws for the public. He invites you to write to him or see his work, atGunLaws.com
