WaPo push poll: Maryland favors gun control

The headline screamedWashington Post poll finds support for stricter gun laws in Maryland.” And if you glanced at a poll put out last week by the venerable leftist paper, you might be led to believe our state is home to a bunch of idiots. Well, it is, but somehow it seems the Post found several hundred who answered the phone the weekend before last.

It’s obvious the poll isn’t aimed at the Post readership because they reliably tilt to the left – if you’re a conservative in the Beltway area you probably pick up the Washington Times.  Instead, I think it was aimed at a small group of politicians: Democrats in the House of Delegates who may balk at passing this legislation. Yet they really have nothing to fear, given that the poll was taken from a random sampling of adults in Maryland, mainly on a weekend.

I also found the second question to be a loaded one, as three separate items were tucked into one question very similar to the previous one. Even among Second Amendment enthusiasts, most would agree that a background check is a good idea and that question scored 82 percent in the Post poll. Knowing that, it shouldn’t be a surprise that when background checks are included in the palette of options for the very next question, the answer would be yes. I doubt that nearly as many Marylanders would agree to fingerprints or an eight-hour training course. And it’s not lost on me that the financial cost of O’Malley’s plan to individual gun owners was left on the cutting room floor as a question to be asked.

Personally, I would trust the thousands who attempted to testify against making Maryland’s already-stringent gun laws even more draconian and safely own and handle guns over people who aren’t even gun owners – less than three out of ten who responded to the Post poll were willing to admit they owned a weapon. I daresay they didn’t call a whole lot of NRA members then.

Ignore gun owners at your peril, Maryland General Assembly.

I think this is a good time to remind you about yesterday’s post on the Annapolis bus trip slated for tomorrow.

3 thoughts on “WaPo push poll: Maryland favors gun control”

  1. You mention NRA members? A CONSERVATIVE poll done by Republican pollster, Frank Luntz, found that NRA members and gun owners overwhelmingly support stricter gun control laws – specifically:

    1. Requiring criminal background checks on gun owners and gun shop employees. 82 percent of all gun owners and 74 percent of NRA gun owners support the former, and 80 percent and 79 percent, respectively, endorse the latter.

    2. Prohibiting terrorist watch list members from acquiring guns. Support ranges from 80 percent among non-NRA gun-owners to 71 percent among NRA members.

    3. Mandating that gun-owners tell the police when their gun is stolen. 71 percent non-NRA gun-owners support this measure, as do 64 percent of NRA members.

    4. Concealed carry permits should only be restricted to individuals who have completed a safety training course and are 21 and older. 84 percent of non-NRA and 74 percent of NRA member gun-owners support the safety training restriction, and the numbers are 74 percent and 63 percent for the age restriction.

    5.Concealed carry permits shouldn’t be given to perpetrators of violent misdemeanors or individuals arrested for domestic violence. The NRA/non-NRA gun-owner split on these issues is 81 percent and 75 percent in favor of the violent misdemeanors provision and 78 percent/68 percent in favor of the domestic violence restriction.

    That poll, by the way – again – done by a CONSERVATIVE firm by a GOP pollster, which sampled 945 GUN OWNERS around the country and had a margin of error of +/- 3, also found broad support gun-owners for the principle that “support for 2nd Amendment rights goes hand-in-hand with keeping illegal guns out of the hands of criminals.” In fact, more NRA members (87 percent) supported the statement than non-NRA members (83 percent).

    So are NRA members and gun owners and conservatives now “lefties”, too?

  2. P.S. Seriously – the polls that you don’t agree with are not “wrong” if they reveal things you don’t want revealed.

  3. The Post didn’t ask NRA members – they asked a “random” sample of adults. And you really didn’t refute my main point, which was the loaded manner in which the questions were asked. I don’t think nearly as many would agree if the entire parameter of the responsibilities in this law were outlined.

    Personally I wouldn’t agree with the first four and probably not number 5, either. That may make me in the minority of those polled, but I also think those polled may not completely understand the idea of the Second Amendment. “Congress shall make no law” to me means what it says.

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