A gun for the holidays?
With a record number of background checks done for gun purchases in December we wondered if you knew anyone who received a gun for a present over the holidays. In a Poll Position national scientific survey, 25% of Americans said they do know someone who got a gun, 66% do not, 9% had no opinion.
According to the FBI, more than 1.5 million background checks were done for guns in the month of December. That is most ever in a month. Gun dealers ran more than 500 thousand background checks for gun sales in the days leading up to Christmas. Theories for so many gun purchases in December range from concerns over personal security due to a bad economy, to people rushing to buy guns because of the possibility of new gun laws.
In the 18-29 year old age group, 47% of those asked said they do know of someone who received a gun for a holiday gift, however 47% said they did not know anyone getting a weapon, 7% did not offer an opinion.
By a slight margin, more men than women knew of someone who received a gun. Among men, 28% said they knew of someone who received a gun for a gift, 63% did not, 9% had no opinion. Women answered the question with 23% saying they knew of someone who received a gun for a present, 68% said they did not, 9% had no opinion.
Poll Position’s scientific telephone survey of 1,076 registered voters nationwide was conducted January 10, 2012 and has a margin of error of ±3%. Poll results are weighted to be a representative sampling of all American adults.
What do you think? Vote in our online companion poll and comment below.
The online companion poll in which you can vote provides unscientific results, meaning it’s a tally of participating Poll Position users, not a nationally representative sampling.
Poll Position is committed to transparency and upholding the highest professional standards in its polling, explaining why we provide you with the crosstabs of our scientific polls. Crosstabs provide a breakdown of survey participants by age, race, gender, and political affiliation. Here are the crosstabs for this poll: Poll Position Crosstabs-Gun as holiday gift
You can learn more about our polling methodology here.
