WA:Poll Should Lawmakers Shoot?

An interesting poll is ongoing about Washington State lawmakers participating in a "Shootout" in  Little Rock at the Evergreen Sportsmen's Club.  The poll, held at oregonlive.com, as a political question, is getting predictable results.   Here is the question and possible responses:

What do you think about lawmakers going to shooting ranges during the legislative session?

•  As long as it is done safely and responsibly there's no issue 

• Great to see them exercising their Second Amendment rights

• Could care less about their shooting ability just wondering why they aren't working 

• Sets a bad example and is inconsiderate towards families hurt by gun violence

• Other:

These online polls are not scientific.   They do not  "accurately" measure public opinion, because the responses are not random, but are self selected.

However, these polls do a good job of measuring "intensity", that is, they do a good job of measuring the ratio of the number of people on both sides of the issue,  who feel strongly enough about the measure to answer a poll.

Admittedly, answering a poll is not a very high barrier to overcome, but it screens out most people who have either not thought much about the issue, or who simple do not care much about the issue.   I have witnessed dozens, if not hundreds of these polls over the last four decades.  The results are reliable and predictable.

Of those people who care, second amendment supporters outnumber those who wish to disarm the people by ratios of from 3:1 to 7:1.     Much depends on how the poll is worded, of course, but second amendment supporters have become fairly sophisticated in understanding that the answers to any poll supporting restrictions on the right to keep and bears arms will be used against them, so the numbers are not as variable as you might expect.

In this poll, with a relatively innocuous question, and no one suggesting that lives would be saved if only the legislature would "do" something, the poll is especially lopsided.

Here are the numbers at the time of this posting:

What do you think about lawmakers going to shooting ranges during the legislative session?

•  As long as it is done safely and responsibly there's no issue  58.82%

• Great to see them exercising their Second Amendment rights 22.75%

• Could care less about their shooting ability just wondering why they aren't working  13.53%

• Sets a bad example and is inconsiderate towards families hurt by gun violence  2.94%

• Other: 1.96%

Those who support the legislators' shooting event, excluding those who simply do not care, are roughly 81% to those who clearly oppose it because they consider it bad ideologically, about 3%.   This  is a remarkable 27:1 ratio of second amendment supporters to those who support citizen disarmament.

I have observed that the ratio increases as the issues are debated and people become educated about the details of legislation.  Washington State is in the middle of a contentious debate about two competing referendums concerning the elimination of private sales, or as the old media prefers to call it "universal background checks".

When restrictive gun proposals are examined,  large numbers of affected citizens know far more about the subject than the legislators who support the legislation.   This comment, from DeclineToState, is indicative:

Should be required for all legislators, especially those who push for more gun control laws. That way they wouldn't be completely ignorant about the objects of their legislation, like Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D), who sponsored legislation banning firearms with barrel shrouds, who when asked if she knew what a barrel shroud was admitted that she didn't, and then guessed it was "the shoulder thing that goes up."

Or like Rep. Diana DeGette (D), who proudly announced her sponsorship of a bill banning sale of so-called "high capacity" magazines, and then explained that the magazines already in circulation would decrease in number as the ammo in them was used up, not aware that magazines can be reloaded and used indefinitely. I have magazines made during World War I and World War II that are still perfectly functional.

And then those ignorant legislators wonder why we oppose their idiotic - oh excuse me - "reasonable and common-sense" gun control - oh excuse me - gun "safety" - legislation.

Here is the link to the poll.

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