CSGV joins Brady Campaign in complaining about Gallup's honesty

Just as the Brady Campaign's Paul Helmke did last week, Mike Beard, of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, is expressing unhappiness that the Gallup poll didn't spin the data the citizen disarmament lobby's way.

This past week the American news media ran stories about the latest installment of the annual Gallup crime poll. The survey in question was conducted last October—before the recent spate of mass shootings in America. The headlines and TV news intros all blared: “Gun Control Support at an All-Time Low.”

The poll results of 1,011 adults surveyed showed that 29% of Americans favor a law banning the possession of handguns by private citizens. Without explanation, the poll totally disregarded the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2008 that the Second Amendment prohibits such a ban, thereby taking it completely off the table as a policy option. Nonetheless the response to this now irrelevant question was touted by several media outlets as “proof” that Americans don’t support gun control.

At least Paul and Mike seem to have their messages in agreement (not always the case with citizen disarmament advocates).

I talked about this when Helmke had his little whine-fest.

The Gallup poll does indeed indicate that support for more draconian gun laws, at 49%, is lowest in the history of Gallup tracking that issue. CSGV and the Brady Bunch can spin it all they want, but them's the facts.

Like Helmke, Beard has chosen not to address a CNN poll (taken after the recent high-profile shootings), showing an even more precipitous drop in support for more restrictive 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.

Beard then goes on to suggest readers take a look at polls commissioned by the Brady Bunch and Illegal Mayors Against Guns (something like that). Those, apparently, are what we're to believe are the objective, unbiased polls.

At least Beard didn't follow Helmke's lead in suggesting that Gallup (and CNN, presumably) "try to replicate the results" of polls that the citizen disarmament lobby approves of.