Friday, January 14, 2011
David said this was off topic but I don't think so
Building on his "gun control" post, I want to present the ABC poll on the shooting done recently. Go here. The poll results are a bit messy. But clear from them (at least to me) is that gun control is not something a clear majority support--it is one of those "almost half believe" issues. And about a quarter of respondents believe violence against the government (our government) may be justified. How do you build a social contract, a social welfare function out of such extremism? I imagine that many folks have always held extreme views but in the more recent past, it has not been socially acceptable (think social contract) to express them openly or to act upon them openly. Are we better off now that extremists don't feel extreme? I think I need a weekend to mellow out.......
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These numbers were pretty interesting, but there weren't a lot of definate numbers that came from them. The majority of polls resulted close to a 50-50 split, which to me, doesn't bring a ton of new and useful information to the table.
ReplyDeleteI did think it was interesting to see the majority of the poll takers believe gun control is fine where it rests today and would have had little affect on the Arizona incident. Similarly, I agree with the fact that body guartds are an unnecessary luxury that our government cannot afford and would have very little impact on any incidents related to the one in Arizona.
I am not sure what the current gun control status quo is in America, but I don't think that it was a huge factor in the most recent event, but I find it hard to believe people didn't think it was politically based. I guess I need to do a little more reading on the entire event..