Posted by Eugene Volokh:
What an Awful Newspaper Poll:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_03_22-2009_03_28.shtml#1238042998
From the [1]Topeka Capital-Journal, about the proposed [2]Kansas right
to bear arms amendment, which would secure an individual right to bear
arms:
Should Kansas amend the state constitution regarding the right to
bear arms?
[Option:] Absolutely. This is most definitely an individual right.
We don't need the judicial system taking it away on a technicality.
[Option:] No. People already have the right to bear arms.
[Option:] I don't care.
As I've often pointed out, [3]such online polls are meaningless as
measures of popular sentiment; they measure only the views of only the
highly unrepresentative set of people who (1) access the web page
(which might already be heavily skewed by who links to that page) and
(2) choose to participate in the survey.
But even setting aside, look at the options -- not one of them
represents the view that "there is and should be no individual right
to bear arms secured against the Kansas government." That's not my
view, but how can you have a survey that doesn't offer that as a
possible response? Looks like the newspaper isn't even trying to have
some veneer of journalistic credibility here. Though perhaps that's
for the good; better have a poll that's clearly nonsense rather than
one that some people (the ones who aren't familiar with the problems
with online polls) think is credible.
References
1.
http://www.cjonline.com/news/legislature/2009-03-25/house_adopts_gun_resolution
2. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_03_22-2009_03_28.shtml#1238042014
3. http://volokh.com/2002_08_25_volokh_archive.html#85399112
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