View Full Version : Poll: 1 in 4 Americans believe U.S. was safer before 9/11


Kaymara
08-24-2006, 07:40 AM
Poll: 1 in 4 Americans believe U.S. was safer before 9/11

Thursday, August 24, 2006; Posted: 7:19 a.m. EDT (11:19 GMT)


(CNN) -- Less than half of Americans believe the United States is now safer from terrorism than it was before September 11, 2001, according to a CNN poll released Wednesday.

Forty-three percent of 1,033 adults surveyed by Opinion Research Corporation said they think the country is safer now than it was before the 9/11 attacks. Thirty-two percent said they believe it is about as safe, while 25 percent said it is less safe.

The telephone poll was conducted August 18-20. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. (See some of the results)

Other questions were posed to a half sample, or 517 people, and have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Among those responses, 54 percent said they think it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" an act of terrorism will occur in the United States within the next several weeks, though just 36 percent said they are worried that they or someone in their family could become a victim of terrorism.

And 11 percent said they believe their community will be the target of such an attack. However, if their community were attacked, 70 percent said they consider their local police force unprepared.

And 55 percent said they believe the federal government is unprepared for a terrorist attack targeting any U.S. town or city. Another 52 percent said the government is unprepared to handle the damage the attack might cause.

Sixty-five percent, however, said they are either "not too worried" or "not worried at all" that they or someone in their family will become a victim of terrorism. Thirty-six percent said they are "very" or "somewhat" worried.

Fifty-five percent of poll respondents said they believe the U.S.-led war in Iraq has made the country less safe from terrorist attacks, and 59 percent said the war has made the world less safe from terrorism.

harrisonsdream
08-24-2006, 08:07 AM
hmmm...interesting. what i'm curious about is who the hell actually gets to participate in those phone polls. i never have. i've never had someone call me to ask me how i think the president is doing, what i think about iraq, etc etc. i think the results are just a bit biased.

Amber V
08-24-2006, 10:26 AM
I "felt" safer before 9/11 because I was younger and could not imagine anything happening at the time. Now I know differently and I think we are working towards a safer lifestyle. I do not really feel that the threat has changed any it just came out of its cave and showed it's face.

luvmysailor2001
08-26-2006, 12:07 AM
I "felt" safer before 9/11 because I was younger and could not imagine anything happening at the time. Now I know differently and I think we are working towards a safer lifestyle. I do not really feel that the threat has changed any it just came out of its cave and showed it's face.

I agree. This is well said.
I do believe the gov't is doing all they can to keep this war off our soil and that I appreciate.

luvmysailor2001
08-26-2006, 12:09 AM
hmmm...interesting. what i'm curious about is who the hell actually gets to participate in those phone polls. i never have. i've never had someone call me to ask me how i think the president is doing, what i think about iraq, etc etc. i think the results are just a bit biased.

I've gotten one call and it was local. They did ask about my approval/disapproval of Pres. Bush the rest of the questions were all about our state.

I try to do any and all online polls I can do (CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc...)

harrisonsdream
08-26-2006, 09:40 AM
i guess i just don't take a whole lot of stock in those online polls because they are biased. online polls are by people who WANT to take them. they are not random. they are taken MOST OF THE TIME by people who
1)have computers
2)are extremely passionate

plus those polls usually give only three choices yes no and i don't know. i know that's why they put the +/- 3 points on there but it just doesn't seem to reliable. maybe i'm weird to :quote question :quote everything that's posted on statistics but i guess i just don't think its random enough. there is at least two criteria to participate in a telephone poll: you have to have a phone, you have to be home.

not everyone has a home phone and they have their cells blocked off the telemarkerters lists.

btw has anyone else every gotten that scared subconscious feeling in an elevator...i mean since 9/11?

Amber V
08-26-2006, 10:10 AM
No I have never really gotten scraed in an elevator.

Kara
08-26-2006, 10:11 AM
I feel more scared now, but just because pre-9/11 I didn't even think of attacks on our soil. But in a way I do feel safer because we are doing so much to protect America now. God bless:)

harrisonsdream
08-26-2006, 10:17 AM
I feel more scared now, but just because pre-9/11 I didn't even think of attacks on our soil. But in a way I do feel safer because we are doing so much to protect America now. God bless:)


:agree

harrisonsdream
08-26-2006, 10:18 AM
No I have never really gotten scraed in an elevator.


my grandma works on the 16th floor of her building and the elevators that go there start at 1 and then don't stop again until 15 so i'm always like omg what if something hits the building and i couldn't even pry my way out because there are no openings to get out at. my grandma gets that same unconscious feeling in the bathrooms at her office too like you know ppl were in the bathrooms when the planes hit the towers and the pentagon. i guess maybe i'm just a little weird but it pops into my head unconsciously and then i'm like what nothing is going to happen.