The British want their guns back...

[billc]

It was an Internet poll and the footnote acknowledges that that particular question may have been skewed by Americans voting.

This caught my eye...why is it assumed that Americans voted in this poll at all, let alone more than the native British? Is it because the results were so one sided for getting their guns back that some want to distract from that fact? I mean, I keep being told that 90% of gun owners believe in background checks...but it could be British citizens are skewing that poll...

As I stated before, it would be nice to see a more accurate poll, just to see where your "man on the street," who has to deal with criminals stands on the gun issue.

 

[billc]

Following the link in the original post, I found an article in the huffingtonpost.com that linked to this article on increased levels of gun ownership in Britain...that's right...increased ownership...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/25/gun-ownership-firearms-certificates?INTCMP=SRCH

But there are still plenty of firearms around here, all held legally. These latest figures from the Home Office have released in March 2011 show that more guns have been licensed than ever before.

A little more accurate than an internet poll...

 

[arnisador]

As are cars...

...which are regulated...

 

[billc]

As are guns...and we don't allow 16 year olds to own or carry guns on their own...but we do allow them to drive cars on their own...and they die a lot because of that...

 

[Flying Crane]

This caught my eye...why is it assumed that Americans voted in this poll at all, let alone more than the native British? Is it because the results were so one sided for getting their guns back that some want to distract from that fact? I mean, I keep being told that 90% of gun owners believe in background checks...but it could be British citizens are skewing that poll...

As I stated before, it would be nice to see a more accurate poll, just to see where your "man on the street," who has to deal with criminals stands on the gun issue.

The thing is, you can't assume anything but at the same time you have to assume everything.

For data from a poll to be useful, you MUST be able to know the body of the population from where the answers came. And then the data is only valid for that particular subset of the population. If all the answers had come from Manchester, for example, then all they could say is that data suggests that a majority of people from Manchester want their guns back and they can't make any inferences for other parts of the UK. In that case, perhaps there is something about Manchester that makes the population desire guns, and that may not be the true in another part of the UK.

A poll on the open internet simply cannot claim to give data about UK citizens, because there is zero control over who is answering it. ANYBODY from ANYWHERE could see the poll and respond to it. All this poll tells us is, a bunch of people said they want their guns back. But nobody knows for sure if the people who responded to the poll are UK citizens. This is absolutely fundamental to legitimate social research.

That's why it's junk.

 

[K-man]

This caught my eye...why is it assumed that Americans voted in this poll at all, let alone more than the native British? Is it because the results were so one sided for getting their guns back that some want to distract from that fact? I mean, I keep being told that 90% of gun owners believe in background checks...but it could be British citizens are skewing that poll...

As I stated before, it would be nice to see a more accurate poll, just to see where your "man on the street," who has to deal with criminals stands on the gun issue.

It should be noted that the poll is not very scientific and since it was published online, the chances of more than a few Americans participating in the vote are considerable.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog...ant_ban_on_handguns_lifted.html#ixzz2VJ25mxSu

Following the link in the original post, I found an article in the huffingtonpost.com that linked to this article on increased levels of gun ownership in Britain...that's right...increased ownership...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/25/gun-ownership-firearms-certificates?INTCMP=SRCH

A little more accurate than an internet poll...

Yep.Sixty three million people with less than two million guns. Might be called voting with their feet because as I suggested earlier, if you have a valid reason and are of good character and sound mind you can have a gun ​if you want one. Most people don't seem to want them, as do a large number of people in the US.

In fairness, the poll was about handguns, not firearms in general but I would be incredibly surprised if there was anything like that percentage of stupid people in Britain. Why would they want to have he same issues that you have in the US? :asian:

 

[Sukerkin]

With regard to your last sentence, K, the point I was alluding is that we didn't have much in the way of a problem with gun related violence here to start with - knee-jerk legislation was rushed in because of a single incident.

As noted in the long running discourse about such violence in the States, it's clearly a cultural difference as the humans and the guns are essentially the same on both sides of the Atlantic.

But, yes, those of us who still remember what it was like to be able to go shooting DO want the laws changing back and it would be nice to see a more recent, decently constructed, poll of opinions on the matter. I do suspect tho, with the media brainwashing that has been going on for a couple of decades now, that such a poll would be swayed by the majority who live in cities and have never experienced firearms handling, for practical and fun reasons, that we 'country boys' did.