ESL 5301-002 Gun Control
Data Commentary II
1. Data Commentary #2
According to the statistical data provided by Ipsos, most of the survey participants believed the law should allow citizens to obtain guns and use deadly weapons to protect themselves (Reuters/Ipsos poll: gun rights & regulations, 2012). However, about half of the supporters are not strong supporters. About 74% of the survey participants also indicated that the law should place a limitation on gun sales. Almost all participants believed checking background at gun sales was necessary. The survey result showed that most people agreed with gun carry with proper limitations probably due to the public security consideration. Lawmakers may consider what specific limitations they should place on gun sales and gun carrying to protect the people.
Comment: This is an online survey. The sample is 1,922 random selected American. I believed students in Texas Tech will respond similarly because people do not want to lose the right to carry a weapon to protect themselves but they do not want to be hurt by hostile gun holders either. (Ruizhi)
Reference
Reuters/ Ipsos poll: gun rights & regulations. (2012, April 12). Ipsos. Retrieved on September 17, 2015 from http://static.reuters.com/resources/media/global/editorial/interactives/ipsos-poll-gun-control/ipsos-poll-gun-control.html
2. Data Commentary 2
In the article “More than 6 in ten Americans say guns make homes safer”, by Justin McCarthy, a survey result on Americans’ idea about increasing house safety by having guns is shown in the chart. The poll was originally done by Gallup in 1993 and it was repeated every two years until 2014 to measure the variation of public idea on this subject. The chart demonstrates the result of the survey from 2000 to 2014 and participants are categorized as Democrats, Republicans and independents. As the chart shows, the percentage of people who believe having a gun in the house will improve safety is increasing for all categories. However, the rate of percentage growth for Republicans is higher compared to two other groups. The investigation shows that the percentage of Republicans who support this idea in 2014 was 81% which is almost twice the percentage amount in 2000 (41%). Among Democrats, this percentage changed from 28% in 2000 to 41% in 2014, and also for independents the variation was about 35% in 2000 to 64% in 2014. Therefore, as a result it can be understood that Democrats generally are less in favor of having guns to increase their home security compared to other group members. However, the percentage of people who support this idea has tended to increase over these years. (Soraya)
McCarthy, J. (2014). More than 6 in ten Americans say guns make homes safer. Gallup. Retrieved on September 17 from http://www.gallup.com/poll/179213/six-americans-say-guns-homes-safer.aspx
3. Data Commentary 2
According to the article “Concealed Carry on College Campuses Support”, a survey has been done regarding campus carry at the University of Texas at Austin. As described in the article, different variables were considered as effective parameters which could be taken into account. Political party, conservatism, liberalism and race were among those categories, and results were reported in bar graphs. The respondents were given five choices including strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, strongly oppose and don’t know. In one case, they were asked about the political party which they were leaning toward. The result bars were shown in blue, gray and dark red depending if they were Democrat, Independent or Republican respectively. As the results are demonstrated in the graph, eight percent of Democrats strongly supported campus carry and fifteen percent of them chose “somewhat support” as their favorable answer. However, fifty-seven percent of Democrats were strongly opposed to that as well as fifteen percent of moderate opposition as they chose “somewhat oppose”. Of course the remaining seven percent did not have any specific preference as they chose “Don't know”. On the other hand, thirty-five percent of the Republicans strongly supported campus carry followed by thirty four percent of moderates who support it as they chose “somewhat support”. Twenty-five percent of them where opposed to campus carry in which almost half of them felt strongly about that. Similar to the results for Democrats, seven percent of Republicans also did not know about their opinions.
The results for Independents were reported as thirteen percent strongly support, twenty percent somewhat support, twenty-two percent somewhat oppose, twenty-nine percent strongly oppose and sixteen percent did not know.
As it can be observed from the results, almost seventy percent of the Republicans are pro-gun carry on campuses, in contrast to Democrats who showed only twenty-three percent support. This shows that the political view of the respondents might play a key role in achieving a closer outcome to reality; so it seems essential to put that on future surveys, and it can be included for preparing a poll in Texas Tech University. This is not a surprise to see Republicans in favor of campus carry and Democrats with more opposition; however, it should be noted that political views of students could change dramatically from a more liberal city like Austin in comparison to Lubbock. It could mean that the ratio of Democrat population to Republican population should be considered as a variable as well. (Sina)
Concealed Carry on College Campuses Support (2015, February). University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Retrieved on September 17, 2015 from http://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/set/concealed-carry-college-campuses-support-february-2015#party-id
4. Data Commentary 2
According to the article “Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States”, the author, Ezra Klein (2012), talks about the 12 facts about different aspects of gun control. The tenth fact is the survey conducted by Gallup (1990) that whether people think about “the laws covering the sale of firearms should be made more strict”. In the graph, it shows that the percentage of people supporting the laws more strict decreased from 78% in 1990 to 44% in 2010 while the percentage of opponents increased from 1990 to 2010 and even exceeded the percentage of supporters in 2009. It eventually reached 54% in 2010. For the reason that support for gun control decreases, Ross Douthat (2012) believed two factors result in this phenomenon. One is the reduction of crime rate. The other one is the attitude of personal right exceeds advocacy of social responsibility. Besides, it had a small fluctuation after 1999 when the most deadly high school shooting in American history happened. We can infer that people’s attitudes toward gun control laws were influenced if shooting accidents occurred. (Kai)
Reference:
Klein, E. (2012, December 14). Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States. The Washington Post. Retrieved on September 17, 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/
Douthat, R. (2012, July 24). The Gun Rights Tilt. The New York Times. Retrieved on September 17, 2015. http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/the-gun-rights-tilt/?_r=0
5. Public supports many gun control policies
This is a bar graph that shows people who support many gun control policies. 98% are in favor of the policy of background checks. The other 2% are opposed to these background checks. The difference between those in favor and those opposed to the ban of semi-automatics is very small (58% and 42% respectively). The difference between those in favor and those opposed to the ban of high capacity clips is also not that large (60% and 40% respectively). 90% of people support the ban of guns for felons and the mentally ill, while 10% do not. The majority opposed the limit of guns for individuals (about 55%). 75% support gun registration while 25% oppose. However, 90% are opposed to complete abolition of guns while 10% are in favor of this.
Most people are in favor of guns. However, they are in favor of restrictions to be set in place to avoid any misuse of them. (Samah)
Reference:
Do Americans Want More or Less Gun Control? Both, Actually. (Dec 14, 2012). Retrieved: (Sept 17, 2015). From http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/do-americans-want-more-or-less-gun-control-both-actually/266312/
6. Data Commentary
According to the results from an Ipsos poll about gun rules and regulations conducted for Thomas Reuters, 75% of the participants in the survey are in favor of allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms. Also 67% of participants believe in using deadly force in public spaces for the purpose of self-defense. However, 74% of the participants support a “law limiting the sale of automatic weapons” and as many as 91% of the participants believe that background check should be one of the requirements in allowing the sale guns. These results show that the majority of pro-gun people are also in favor of laws that prohibit wrong guns from falling into wrong hands. (Pouria)
Reference
Guns rights and regulations. (2012, Apr. 13). Ipsos/Reuters poll. Retrieved on September 17, 2015 from http://ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=5586
7. Data Commentary #2
According to the annual mass shooting casualties graph in motherjones.com, the numbers of injured and fatalities has increased gradually from 1982 to 2012. Between 1982 and 1998, the number of fatalities are under 40 and the number of injured were under 60 except in the year 1991. In 1999, the number of fatalities increased to above 40 and the number of injured also increased to more than 80 because of Columbine high school. Between 2000 and 2012, the number of fatalities 20 and under, and the injured were under 80. The exception was in the year 2007; the number of fatalities was around 70 and injured 90. Also, in 2012 there were almost 79 fatalities and more than 140 injured because of Sandy Hook and Aurora Theater. Therefore, allowing the carry of guns on campus will increase the number of fatalities and injured. (Ebtehal)
Reference
Mass shootings in the US are on the rise. (2012)Mother Jones. Retrieved on September 17, 2015 from http://www.motherjones.com/special-reports/2012/12/guns-in-america-mass-shootings
8. Data Commentary
Regarding gun rights and regulations, Ipsos poll made a survey of people’s ideas from 1,922 Americans conducted from April 9th – 12th, 2012. The findings were listed in four charts. In the second chart, we can see there are 67% of participants who totally agree with the idea that the law should allow citizens to use deadly force to protect themselves in a public space. In contrast, 27% of people in the survey were against this proposal. In addition, 6% of participants had no clear idea on this argument. From the data, it shows that more than half the people hold the opinion that guns are protective tools when they are in danger and guns can be used in public places. (Lu)
Reference
Ipsos poll. (April 13, 2012). Ipsos/Reuters Poll: Gun Rights & Regulations. Retrieved on September 17, 2015 from
http://ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=5586
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