PPP Poll: Games More Dangerous Than Guns

Update: Many of our readers pointed out that the question in the poll about video games was directed at Republican respondents, which explains why to was skewed negatively towards video games. Thanks to everyone who pointed that out to us.

Original Story: Kotaku point out this Public Policy Polling tracking poll about the current popularity of possible future presidential nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties.

While there's some interesting information on who the party standard-bearers might be in the 2016 race, a silly question made its way into the poll with even wackier results. A poll question asks respondents: "what do you think is a bigger safety threat in America: guns or violent video games?"

A majority of respondents chose video games as a more dangerous threat to safety in America:

What do you think is a bigger safety threat in America: guns or violent video games? Guns ............................................................... 14%
Video games ................................................... 67%
Not sure .......................................................... 19%

Here's the methodology used for the poll that was conducted between January 31 - February 3:

"PPP surveyed 800 voters nationally from January 31st to February 3rd. The margin of error for the survey is +/-3.5%. We oversampled 416 Democratic and 508 Republican primary voters with margins of error of +/-4.8% and +/-4.4% respectively. In Iowa between February 1st and 3rd we interviewed 313 Democratic and 326 Republican primary voters with margins of error of +/-5.5% and +/-5.4% respectively. This poll was not paid for or authorized by any campaign or political organization. PPP surveys are conducted through automated telephone interviews."

Of course, considering that 60 percent of those polled identified themselves as 46 to 65 years old (40 percent) or 65+ (30 percent), these poll results make a lot more sense. Around 72 percent identified themselves as "white" while gender and political affiliation breakdowns were mostly even - with a slight edge to conservatives.

Source: Kotaku