ABSTRACT
Public opinion polls are an important part of the political process and combatants on both sides of the gun control debate use poll results to buttress their positions and persuade policy makers of the popularity of the measures they propose. Survey results do not interpret themselves, and do not always mean what they seem to mean. Caution must be exercised in interpreting public opinion poll results, especially with regard to the exact form and wording of the questions asked. Perhaps the most meaningless public opinion results in the entire gun control area are responses to a question asked repeatedly by the Gallup poll. Public opinion seems particularly prone to large changes in response to highly publicized acts of gun violence, with support increasing sharply immediately after the event and then dropping as memory of the event fades. Interpreting gun control opinion polls, Wright concluded that many people support measures for reasons other than their assumed effects on the crime rate.
