2010 Census

[tfr270]

So my buddy calls me up and tells me that census workers were at his house today. He didn't answer the door at first since he was home for his lunch hour and wanted privacy. There is a shared driveway down the side of his house that he sees these two census workers walk down. At the end of the driveway is the landlords house over the two car garage they share. The garage door is open giving a view of everything inside. Gun safes and reloading equipment included.
So they come back down the driveway after a long time and my friend decided to talk with them to see what was up. They took GPS coordinates of the house, which they say is SOP to confirm that there is a house there and not just a chimney..their words...and handed him a multipage census questionaire.
This questionaire asks all kinds of questions. Search 2010 Census Questions and you can find the quesionaire. The census is not just asking the question "how many live here". They want all kinds of information for "Federal Awareness" and "Community Awareness". According to my buddy there is a question about are you a gun owner and how many guns do you own? I couldn't confirm this on the website I found.
This is just something that make us go hmmmm. I thought that they were only to ask how many people live here and then move on. That the census was for redistricting purposes for congressional districts and to determine how many congressmen are needed from each state.
Check out your search engine for the 2010 Census questions. Pretty interesting what they want to know and how they say why they want to know it.

[fightingquaker13]

Be of good cheer. The demographic questions (not pertaining to weapons ownership if they are there ) is a good thing. In order to allocate money for everything from education dollars, to highway funds, to farm subsidies, to predicting what the demand for medicare and etc. ad infinitum, is going to be, the feds need to know how many children, old farts, farmers etc are in a given congressional district. (Whether this money should be flowing in the first place is a different topic). Given the expense and difficulty of collecting this data, it just makes good economic sense to do it with the census collectors, which we are constitutionally mandated to pay for anyway. No conspiracy, just an economic use of resources.
FQ13

[JC5123]

I don't know...Though I will participate, I am very cautious of the new census. First the White House jumps all over it and now they want to have ACORN out actually taking the census???   Isn't ACORN part of the reason we are in the mess we are in right now?

[tfr270]

What is ACORN?

[alfsauve]

I understand the need for a census for apportionment purposes, but I don't think, at the point of a gun, we should be required to answer any other questions regardless of what government allocations are involved.    Count noses, ages and citizenship status.  That's it.  It's no business of the federal government how many toilets I have or how many guns I have.   I'll be very suspicious if the actual census contains questions about gun ownership.

That said, it puts us between a rock and a hard spot.  You'll go to jail quicker for lying on a federal form than you will for murder and mayhem.

[Sponsor]

[Teresa Heilevang]

2 people live in this house.. One is a full blown redneck American.. the other is a "legal" citizen of the United States..
I put down my pencil after that! I don't give a tinkers damn about government allocations.. so ....................I won't lie.. I just won't tell them anything that is none of their business! Period.. end.. over and out!.

[Timothy]

2 people live in this house.. One is a full blown redneck American.. the other is a "legal" citizen of the United States..
I put down my pencil after that! I don't give a tinkers damn about government allocations.. so ....................I won't lie.. I just won't tell them anything that is none of their business! Period.. end.. over and out!.

Sounds reasonable to me M'ette.....!

[Hottrockin]

I see nuttin' 'bout number of guns in the questionnaire.

http://2010.census.gov/2010census/recent_news/011812.html

"Questions Planned for the 2010 Census and American Community Survey" opens in PDF format.

I guess if they ask 'bout yo guns you could invite'em in and "show'em"?  ~wink, wink~

[alfsauve]

Well, you know, trying to gather all that personal data once every 10 years isn't enough, so in 2010 the "official" census will be just what it should be.  Everyone gets the short form.  No toilet or gun counts.   Just the basic who are you and some basic demographics.

BUT how do the bureaucrats and elitist get all the other data they really want.  

OH....they've authorized something called    "American Community Survey" which isn't just every 10 years but it is on-going survey and in there words

    * tells us what the population looks like and how it lives

They send out the questionnaire each year to a "sample" of the population.   And under Title 13 of the US code, just like the Census, you are REQUIRED to answer all the questions.

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/SBasics/SQuest/SQuest1.htm

There weren't any firearm questions in the 2009 questionnaire nor do there appear to be any in the 2010 proposed questions.  Things could change.  Here is a link to the 2010 questions.

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/Questions_Planned_for_the_2010_Census_and_American_Community_Survey.pdf

But you know, at any time, "they" could decide to include a firearms question in the ACS and it would become defacto registration of which households have guns.

[fightingquaker13]

2 people live in this house.. One is a full blown redneck American.. the other is a "legal" citizen of the United States..
I put down my pencil after that! I don't give a tinkers damn about government allocations.. so ....................I won't lie.. I just won't tell them anything that is none of their business! Period.. end.. over and out!.

And that's all you're legally required to say (unless the law has changed, my info is current as of 1992). Its like talking to the cops. There are exactly three rules: you can't lie, you have to give your name and address, and if there are exigent circumstances, you have to provide the relevant data. Beyond that, its up to you. Personally, given that its my tax money we're talking about, I would rather it be be allocated in the most effecient manner possible. Most state employees are just like us, hardworking people trying to do a job. (they just have better health care). They do, however, need information, if they're going to do a halfway competent job. So, unless I feel the question is absurdly invasive or threatening, I will answer it. To use the example about toliets, that is of vital interest to your city utilities manager who needs to predict water usage so there is an adequate supply. This is particularly true of regions of the country who are (like Florida) in a drought. You might think its trivial but I can tell you that there is a lot of blood spilled over what questions get asked on those very scarce few inches of a census form. There are usually a lot of dollars at stake behind each of them and I would urge you, just like the toilet thing, to think through the implications before just dismising them.
FQ13 who doesn't trust the government but wants to get his money's worth out of his tax dollars