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Where Does That “90% of Americans Support Expanded Background Checks” Come From?

Robert Farago - comments No comments

(courtesy quinnipiac.edu)

TTAG reader Jeff F writes:

A lot of people don’t understand where this “90 percent of Americans support expanded background checks” number came from. It’s been drawn from a Quinnipiac study. If you want to know the truth about this statistic, pay special attention to the wording in question 31, and also the never-ever-ever mentioned question 35 from the SAME study. It’s pretty funny. Here’s question 31 . . .

31. Do you favor or oppose requiring background checks for all gun buyers?” Over 90% said they favor background checks.

Notice how the question never uses the word “expanded” in any way, or asks the respondent if they support the new gun control laws. Quite a stretch to interpret an affirmative answer to this question to mean support for the new laws and “Expanded” background checks, right?

Question 35 is also pretty cool, in that it seems to have been magically stricken from the minds of the media and the White House.

Here’s question 35:

35. Who do you think better reflects your views on guns, President Obama or the National Rifle Association?

45% said the NRA, 44% said Obama.

More respondents agree with the NRA than with Obama. This would seem to indicate that while people like background checks, they do NOT like the new idea of “expanded” background checks.

Dishonesty by our adversaries, and yet I have not yet seen anyone take them to task on it. Their own study contradicts their statements, and we don’t seem to be using this against them. Why?! The same study with the same people, yet question 31 is trumpeted to the heavens by the gun-banners, while question 35 is never mentioned, even by our side?

Why is this never mentioned, and can you get the word out? [ED: We mention it as often as possible, such as this editorial.]

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Robert Farago

Robert Farago is the former publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

0 thoughts on “Where Does That “90% of Americans Support Expanded Background Checks” Come From?”

  1. You know, a reasonable person has no NEED to own a car that drives faster than 15 mph. You talk about all the safety improvements in cars, and they’ve let the auto industry get away with making bigger and stronger engines, and faster cars. Now, 55 mph speed limits are all over the place. There was a time in this country when the common speed limits were 8 mph city and 13 mph highway. Clearly, cars wouldn’t be so lethal if they weren’t able to drive so fast. Karl Benz never envisioned a day in which his invention would cause so much death and destruction …

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  2. I often leave a legal gun in my luggage (Bill Russell, Jerry Lewis), public toilets (any number of police officers and Dave Evans, Missouri House legislative assistant), the trunk lid on a police cruiser (Seattle) and, oh, I don’t know — it’s getting so hard to keep track of such things.

    In each case, the arresting SWAT teams could not have been more professional as they executed my family pets and tased me repeatedly.

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  3. In fairness, NYC is one of the safest large cities in the United States. I don’t attribute that, at all, to gun control, but if the point of this article is that New York is particularly dangerous, it’s based on a fundamentally flawed premise.

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  4. FWIW, Ruger sells three uppers in its SR556 line, two in 5.56 and one in 6.8!

    But the MSRP is $1500 for just the upper. To put that in perspective, the SR-556E (the whole gun) is MSRP $1375.

    I have no idea the differences between the economical model and the standard other than price (MSRP is $2000 for a regular SR556) nor the differences between the uppers that are in 5.56. But I do find it nice that they would package uppers for sale and not just whole guns. But for the price…

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  5. 30 years as an EMT and ER nurse and never, not even once did the press report what I’d seen with my own eyes. I never could figure out how the official reports were derived from the facts. The body count is all you can believe.

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