Brady Campaign upset that Gallup failed to manipulate data

April 9, 4:14 AMSt. Louis Gun Rights ExaminerKurt Hofmann

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A newly released Gallup Poll shows that public support for more restrictive gun laws has fallen to its lowest level in the nearly 20 years that Gallup has tracked the issue.  Additionally, the poll shows that support for an outright handgun ban is at its lowest in the nearly 5 decades that Gallup has polled that issue.

In Gallup polling conducted prior to last week's gun massacre at an immigrant center in Binghamton, N.Y., only 29% of Americans said the possession of handguns by private citizens should be banned in the United States. While similar to the 30% recorded in 2007, the latest reading is the smallest percentage favoring a handgun ban since Gallup first polled on this nearly 50 years ago.

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Separately, the October Crime survey found just under half of Americans, 49%, wanting the laws covering the sale of firearms to be made stricter than they are now. This is the lowest percentage favoring stricter gun laws in Gallup trends since the question was first asked in 1990.

As might be expected, the Brady Campaign is not happy.  The first objection is that the poll was taken before the recent atrocities committed with firearms, and thus doesn't reflect whatever temporary boost for public support of more restrictive gun laws that such events sometimes provide (emphasis in original).

This polling information was collected last October, which Gallup does mention in its third paragraph. Yet it certainly begs the question: Why publish a statement based on data that is almost six months old, in the wake of a string of mass shootings committed over the past month?

The pressures of getting into the news cycle are powerful, but the important question is what Americans believe about gun violence prevention policy today.

It seems that Helmke wants Gallup to strike while the iron is hot, the way the Brady Campaign did, with its  "People Dead--Please Send Money" fundraiser (yes--I'm shamelessly plagiarizing National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea).  White House Chief of Staff Rahm "Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste" Emanuel would no doubt agree--if the fickle whims of the public are currently supporting your agenda, it's time to act--never mind the long term trends.

Helmke's other main objection is in regard to the question about support for an outright handgun ban.

What's even more disturbing is for Gallup to ask Americans whether or not they support a total ban on handguns when that policy has not been pursued nationwide in years and totally ignores the current debate on gun violence prevention.

Since the Supreme Court decided last June that total handgun bans are unconstitutional, such policies are off the table as a policy option. It makes no sense to ask Americans their opinion on a policy that cannot lawfully be enacted.

Helmke apparently thought it not worth mentioning that the Brady Campaign is a relatively new name for the organization, which was once called Handgun Control, Inc., whose founder explicitly outlined the slippery slope plan (which the Brady Campaign dismisses as a myth now) for achieving the group's holy grail of an outright ban on handguns for private citizens.  He also didn't mention that the Brady Campaign's ideological ally, the Violence Policy Center, does openly advocate a total ban of handguns.

Perhaps most illustrative of Helmke's thinking, though, is this passage (my emphasis added):

What Gallup should do in the future is try to replicate the polling results of other surveys that examine Americans' attitudes toward the wide variety of gun violence prevention policies that, in the words of Justice Antonin Scalia, are "presumptively lawful" after the Supreme Court's decision, while gauging the desire of Americans to see those proposals enacted into law.

Get that?  "Try to replicate the polling results."  He thinks polls should be engineered with an eye toward obtaining some preordained, "desired" result.  The poll, in other words, should not be optimized for research, but for supporting an agenda (an agenda of restrictive gun legislation, of course).

That says rather a lot about every poll commissioned by the Brady Campaign, doesn't it?

By the way, I realize that the United States is a republic, rather than a democracy, and that even if a commanding majority of the public did support further restrictions of the right that shall not be infringed, that's not how things are supposed to work here.  Still, since elections have turned into popularity contests, it makes sense to illustrate the lack of popularity of restrictive gun laws.

Update: CNN has released its own poll, that was conducted after the recent mass shootings, and has found a preciptious drop in support for stricter gun laws:

From Oakland, California, to Binghamton, New York, several mass shootings in recent weeks have killed dozens across the country. But has there been an effect on public opinion?

Yes, and in a surprising way.

Since 2001, most Americans have favored stricter gun laws, though support has slightly dropped in recent years: 54 percent favored stricter laws in 2001, compared with 50 percent in 2007, according to Gallup polling.

Now, a recent poll reveals a sudden drop -- only 39 percent of Americans now favor stricter gun laws, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll.

 Better give CNN a good scolding, Mr. Helmke.