In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Homeland security articles
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Poll: U.S. security more important
JENNIFER L. BROWN
Associated Press Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY - Four in five Americans would give up some freedoms to gain security and four in 10 worry terrorists will harm them or their family, a new Gallup poll shows.
About one-third of those polled favor making it easier for authorities to access private e-mail and telephone conversations. More than 70 percent are in favor of requiring U.S. citizens to carry identification cards with fingerprints, and 77 percent believe all Americans should have smallpox vaccinations.
"It was amazing the percentage of people who are willing to give up freedom to get back some sense of personal security," said Elaine Christiansen, senior research director for The Gallup Organization. "These aren't people who were necessarily near the twin towers, near the Pentagon, near the Murrah building. These are average people."
The telephone survey, conducted in March, included 934 people across the country. Researchers also polled about 500 people in each of three cities where terrorist attacks occurred - New York City, Washington, D.C., and Oklahoma City - to compare results with the general population survey.
The poll showed 8 percent of Americans are very worried and 31 percent are somewhat worried that they or someone in their family will become victims of a terrorist attack in the United States. In New York City, the level of worry is higher - 19 percent said they are very worried and 34 percent said they are somewhat worried.
Washington, D.C, and Oklahoma City reported levels of fear close to the national average.
Scientists involved in the poll said they were not surprised many Americans remain fearful after Sept. 11.
"The magnitude of the event was just so profound," said Carol North, a psychiatry professor at Washington University in St. Louis, who said talk of the war in Afghanistan, airline security and terrorist threats is propelling the fear.
The study was co-sponsored by The University of Oklahoma psychiatry department through a grant from the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. The main survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, while the margin of error for the survey in the three cities is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Meanwhile, a New York Times/CBS News poll found that 60 percent of New York City residents think the threat of a terrorist attack in their city is greater than it is in any other big city.
Barely 40 percent of respondents believe the city is safer than it had been four years ago, a decrease of 20 percent from those polled in August. Even so, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said that given a choice, they would prefer to be living in the city four years from now than any other place.
The poll, conducted by telephone in English or Spanish June 4 through Sunday, surveyed 940 adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/nation/3445375.htm---
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Edited by - Josey1 on 06/12/2002 05:45:41
JENNIFER L. BROWN
Associated Press Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY - Four in five Americans would give up some freedoms to gain security and four in 10 worry terrorists will harm them or their family, a new Gallup poll shows.
About one-third of those polled favor making it easier for authorities to access private e-mail and telephone conversations. More than 70 percent are in favor of requiring U.S. citizens to carry identification cards with fingerprints, and 77 percent believe all Americans should have smallpox vaccinations.
"It was amazing the percentage of people who are willing to give up freedom to get back some sense of personal security," said Elaine Christiansen, senior research director for The Gallup Organization. "These aren't people who were necessarily near the twin towers, near the Pentagon, near the Murrah building. These are average people."
The telephone survey, conducted in March, included 934 people across the country. Researchers also polled about 500 people in each of three cities where terrorist attacks occurred - New York City, Washington, D.C., and Oklahoma City - to compare results with the general population survey.
The poll showed 8 percent of Americans are very worried and 31 percent are somewhat worried that they or someone in their family will become victims of a terrorist attack in the United States. In New York City, the level of worry is higher - 19 percent said they are very worried and 34 percent said they are somewhat worried.
Washington, D.C, and Oklahoma City reported levels of fear close to the national average.
Scientists involved in the poll said they were not surprised many Americans remain fearful after Sept. 11.
"The magnitude of the event was just so profound," said Carol North, a psychiatry professor at Washington University in St. Louis, who said talk of the war in Afghanistan, airline security and terrorist threats is propelling the fear.
The study was co-sponsored by The University of Oklahoma psychiatry department through a grant from the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. The main survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, while the margin of error for the survey in the three cities is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Meanwhile, a New York Times/CBS News poll found that 60 percent of New York City residents think the threat of a terrorist attack in their city is greater than it is in any other big city.
Barely 40 percent of respondents believe the city is safer than it had been four years ago, a decrease of 20 percent from those polled in August. Even so, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said that given a choice, they would prefer to be living in the city four years from now than any other place.
The poll, conducted by telephone in English or Spanish June 4 through Sunday, surveyed 940 adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/nation/3445375.htm---
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Edited by - Josey1 on 06/12/2002 05:45:41
Comments
Poll: Americans Believe Stopping Terror Is More Important Than Privacy
Analysis
By Gary Langer
June 10 - Focused more on future dangers than past failures, Americans broadly support the Bush administration's latest counterterrorism initiatives, saying explicitly that personal privacy rights should take a back seat to the investigation of further terrorist threats.
Print This Page
Email This Page
See Most Sent
No Post-Grad Plan: No Cap & Gown
Do TV Miracle Products Really Work?
Why Epileptics May Fear to Confide in Doctors
MORE ON THIS STORY
COMMUNITY
Debate: Security vs. Privacy Rights
RELATED STORIES
Officials: Dirty Bomb Plot Disrupted
Brooklyn Rabbi Plans Shotgun Patrols
A new ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll finds that more than two-thirds endorse President Bush's call for a homeland security department. Nearly as many, 64 percent, support broader FBI authority to monitor public places such as libraries, places of worship and Internet chat rooms - even thought most see this as an intrusion on privacy rights.
The administration also wins support for its claim to have improved intelligence handling since Sept. 11. While seven in 10 say U.S. intelligence agencies mishandled pre-Sept. 11 intelligence, nearly as many, 67 percent, give positive grades to the way such information is being handled today. (Fifty-three percent also doubt the Sept. 11 attacks could have been prevented, given what was known.)
Concern about future threats is the backdrop for public sentiment on these issues. Today 55 percent of Americans, the most since Sept. 11, lack confidence in the government's ability to prevent further attacks - up more than 20 points since the night of Sept. 11, as the nature and extent of the dangers have come more sharply into focus.
Support for Intrusion
At times of national crisis the public's priority is the mitigation of threat. Seventy-nine percent say it's more important right now to investigate terrorism, even if that means intruding on personal privacy. Just 18 percent say it's more important not to intrude on privacy, even if that limits counterterrorism efforts.
More specifically, most Americans support expanded FBI surveillance authority even though the majority, 62 percent, sees it as an encroachment on individual privacy rights. Even among those who see it as an intrusion, 52 percent support it anyway.
Still, as in the past, this poll underscores the public's preference for such intrusions to be as targeted and limited as possible. Among those who think the new FBI authority does not intrude on personal privacy, 86 percent support it. Among those who think it intrudes "somewhat," 61 percent support it. But among those who think it intrudes "a great deal," support plummets to 30 percent.
Sept. 11 Intelligence Handled Poorly
As noted, 71 percent give a negative rating to the way intelligence agencies handled pre-Sept. 11 intelligence, while 67 percent rate the current handling of such intelligence positively. Still, that positive rating is far from a perfect one - 56 percent say the agencies are doing a "good" job analyzing and sharing intelligence, but just 11 percent say their performance is "excellent."
Bush, for his part, continues his extraordinary ride in public support, with an overall job approval rating of 77 percent. That's held steady for about the last two months, after declining from a peak of 92 percent in October, a record in modern polls.
Bush, Security Get Good Ratings
Bush's approval rating ranges from near-unanimity among Republicans, 96 percent, to 63 percent among Democrats. Support for his proposed Department of Homeland Security, similarly, is broad among Democrats (64 percent) and vast among Republicans (88 percent). Even among conservative Republicans, traditionally skeptical of expanding government, 87 percent support the plan.
Conservative Republicans are most apt to support expanding FBI surveillance powers (75 percent do so), and least apt to think this intrudes on privacy rights (49 percent). Among their political opposites, liberal Democrats, far more - 74 percent - see this as intrusive. But a majority, 56 percent, still supports it.
More broadly, 81 percent of conservative Republicans say it's more important right now to investigate terrorism than to steer clear of intrusions on personal privacy. And on this, 80 percent of liberal Democrats agree.
Methodology
This ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone June 7-9 among a random national sample of 1,004 adults. The results have a three-point error margin. Field work was done by TNS Intersearch of Horsham, Pa.
Previous ABCNEWS polls can be found in our PollVault.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/terror_poll020610.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY RIGHTS - GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY (this includes politicians)