Results from the informal poll

[John/az2]

The results are in!

First of all please understand that this poll's margin of error is +/- 50% (NOT!) But, it is a very casual poll generated by pure curiosity.

The tallies from 73 respondants are as follows:

1. Are you self-employed:

Yes:19 No:54

2. What is your age:

Greatest years of experience: 67 (GLV)
Fewest years of experience: 17 (Andy)
Average age: 39.7
Total represented years of experience from respondants: 2897

3. How many years of schooling beyond high school do you have? (For those of you who just put degrees, I entered a "number of years" value for them, so this certainly
has more of an error factor.)

Most years of formal education beyond high school: 9 (Walt Welch)
Least years of formal education beyond high school: -1 (Andy)
Average years of college education: 3.5
Total years of college education: 258.5

4. What particular set of beliefs do you subscribe to? (Christian, Athiest, Jewish,
etc...)

This question, of course, recieved a wide variety of answers. I'm listing them with the
number of respondants. Because Christianity spans so many different religions, those I
was not familiar with I list individually.

Humanist: 1
Pantheist: 1
Philosophist: 1
Naturalist: 1
Wican/Pagan: 1
Agnostic: 2
Diest: 2
Athiest: 3
None: 14
Christian: 47

5. What is your main reason for your interest in the "Gun" topic?
I should have known that there be more than one answer for most of the respondants!

Hobby: 39
2nd Amendement: 35
Self Defense: 22
Family Tradition: 14
Hunting: 4
Job: 3
Education: 1
History: 1
Insanity: 1 (thanks Mikey!)

And lastly:

6. Have you served in the military?

Yes: 36 No: 35

Oops, I'm missing 2... Oh well. Like I said, "An Informal Poll."


------------------
John/az

"Just because something is popular, does not make it right."

 

[HS]

What about the longest distance poster ?

ME !

------------------
"The Gun from Down Under !"

 

[GLV]

Interesting, thanks. The one stat that has really changed in the past 25 years, is number that have served in the military. In the mid seventies, about 80% to 90% of new LEOs had military service. Today the number is closer to 10%.

Do you think the lack of military experience could have anything to do with, well the incident in NYC where the suspect was shot 41 times? GLV

 

[Art Eatman]

GLV: We're gettin' a bit off-thread, but the change in percentages of guys with military service is affecting our elected bodies as well as the LEO world. IMNSHO, ex-military folks have (in general) an earlier maturity as to attitude toward the world, and I *think* that ex-mil LEOs would be less prone to jumping to conclusions--not adamant, here, just an opinion...

A writeup I read about the NYC shooting you refer to indicated that the victim was seen to be pulling a "black object" from around his waist, from under a coat. For all that it was a pager or cell phone, it led to the first shots. There was a surmise that ricochets led other officers to believe they were being fired upon, so they entered into the shooting...I personally think that this was one of those deals where the officer has 0.1 seconds to make a decision, and the rest of the world has months to second-guess the decision(s)...In 1964, an LEO friend of mine got into the same sort of deal; lots of media/Liberal whining, but cool heads prevailed.

Sorry about the off-thread...Art