Protect your house with a gun, dog or alarm? Gun is top choice
Welcome to the 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll for March. Many recent storms have been wreaking havoc around the country and for many Americans, the first day of spring, March 21st cannot come soon enough. What better sign of the coming of spring is there than the exhibition baseball games being played in sunny Florida and Arizona?
Opening Day will actually begin on March 31st, mark your calendars. A good reason to celebrate will take place on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, where anyone who wishes to, may become an honorary citizen of the land of Saints and Scholars and a thousand shades of green for a day.
Beware the Ides of March though, they can cause March Madness which begins on CBS on March 19th. And on March 31st, Christians around the world will celebrate their highest and most joyous Holy Day, Easter Sunday. Will they have a new pope to say Easter Mass by then? The whole world will be watching. America indeed has a lot to celebrate in March, but it also has a lot of sobering issues to discuss. One of the topics at the forefront of our national dialogue (no, not sequestration) is gun control and violence in America. This month's poll questions all deal with this controversial topic. What do you think?
A quarter of Americans correctly identified Wayne LaPierre as the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. Fourteen percent thought he was a French explorer and eight percent guessed Canadian hockey player. The majority (51 percent) did not know who he was. Perhaps they should.
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Eight out of 10 Americans believe the depiction of violence in popular culture in some movies and video games contributes at least some (35 percent) or a lot (45 percent) to violence in our society. Twelve percent said not much and six percent thought it did not contribute to the violence at all. It may be anecdotal evidence at this point but there have been multiple reports that Newton shooter Adam Lanza practiced "shooting" for days and days using violent video games.
Only 10 percent of Americans think that stricter gun laws should be the single most important issue for the country right now. More than half (52 percent) think it should be a fairly high priority, but there are other more important issues. Fourteen percent said it should not be a very high priority right now and 22 percent (comprised of 34 percent Republican, 29 percent Independent and six percent Democrat) said that stricter gun laws are not needed at all. What about emulating the successful strategy of New York City and others and concentrating on stricter enforcement of existing laws?
Forty-four percent of Americans worry most about being a potential victim of violence in bad neighborhoods. Fourteen percent said movie theaters, stadiums and theme parks, eight percent said airplanes, subways and buses, five percent said at home, four percent said at school and 21 percent said none of the above. It's a sad new reality that we have to even ask such questions.
Americans are evenly divided about what deterrents would make them feel safest at home. Thirty-one percent said a gun, 30 percent chose an alarm system, 22 percent went old school choosing a dog, eight percent played it safe with a "safe" room and seven percent would go "stealth" with their own personal ninja.
Thirty-seven percent of Americans correctly identified China as the country where firearms were invented. Seventeen percent picked Germany known for their awesome war machines, 15 percent chose Spain and their powerful cannons, six percent thought Egypt and 24 percent did not know. If they had remembered that Marco Polo brought back gun powder from his travels in China, their powers of deduction could have led them to the correct answer.
Two out of three Americans carry no "protection" of any kind when they are away from their homes. Of those who do, 12 percent carry a gun, 10 percent bring pepper spray or mace, for seven percent the solution is a knife, and two percent carry a whistle. So the next time you're out walking in a big crowd, watch out, 1 in 3 of your "neighbors" might be "packing" more than just a lunch.
According to the 2011 Small Arms Survey, there are 89 civilian guns for every 100 Americans and only 16 percent of those asked guessed correctly. The other options ranging from 23 to 117 either got a little less or a little more than 20 percent. Twenty-five percent did not know and did not hazard a guess. The larger question is do you feel safer with all these guns out there or not? That's one of the central questions being debated now and based on most other issues in America, the betting is that it will come out pretty close to a 50/50 split.
Only a third of Americans would feel more safe with stricter gun laws. Twenty percent would feel less safe and for 45 percent it would make no difference. So why would two out of three Americans say they would not feel safer with stricter gun laws? That is part of what should come out in a broader debate. Some of them may feel let down by lack of strict enforcement of current laws while others may feel that it is impossible to stop everyone who is intent on doing violence with a gun. That does not however, absolve us from trying to reduce gun violence.
Just over half of Americans (51 percent) would feel less comfortable if teachers were armed with guns at school. One quarter would feel more comfortable and it would make no difference to the rest (23 percent). It is easy to see how this idea could be put forward after so many tragic shootings, but it is difficult to see how it could actually be implemented.
Just 16 percent of Americans knew that the Second Amendment begins with the words, " A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state...," nearly half (48 percent) thought it began with, "The right to bear arms..." which does not appear until later in the Amendment. Seventeen percent picked "The right of the people to be secure in their persons..." Fourteen percent did not know.