The issue with this poll isn't necessarily the wording of the poll -- it's the TIMING of the poll.
An anti-gun organization has taken advantage of a tragic situation that represents the exception to the rule - George Zimmerman is NOT representative of the vast majority of people who carry, either concealed or openly - to conduct a poll regarding attitudes concerning concealed carry in "pistol free" zones, KNOWING that people who would otherwise have been supportive of such measures would be extremely hesitant to voice such support now for fear of being labelled a blood-thirsty nutjob.
The facts speak for themselves. Michigan already allows someone who possesses a concealed pistol license to openly carry a pistol in such zones, and there have been ZERO incidents in Michigan involving such individuals. Now people want to freak out because someone might be able to carry a pistol CONCEALED? By definition, they won't even know that a pistol is even present? We went through this same hysteria ten years ago when expanded access to concealed carry appeared on the ballot, and passed by a 3 to 1 margin. There was no increased bloodshed. A year later, then-governor Granholm was forced to publicly acknowledge the success of the measure and its results, and the Grand Rapids Press printed a retraction of their previous opposition to the measure, citing the same statistics used by Granholm. In fact, MSP data (corroborated by FBI data) indicates that, statewide, violent crime has diminished by at least 14% in the last 10 years since the passage of that legislation. What I see here is nothing less than fear-mongering regarding a right that was declared earlier this year in the federal district court decision Woollard v. Sheridan to be a basic Constitutional right whose exercise requires no justification beyond the existence of the right.
As I said, the George Zimmermans (and let me be clear that I believe George Zimmerman precipitated an event that ended with an unnecessary death) of this country represent the exception to the rule. Earlier this year, Forbes Magazine (hardly pro-gun) published an article entitled "Disarming the Myths Promoted By the Gun Control Lobby." In it, the author quoted the following statistic from a Newsweek (a virulently anti-gun publication) report: "Newsweek has reported that law-abiding American citizens using guns in self-defense during 2003 shot and killed two and one-half times as many criminals as police did, and with fewer than one-fifth as many incidents as police where an innocent person was mistakenly identified as a criminal (2% versus 11%)." Conventional wisdom holds that law enforcement officers are held to a higher standard than private citizens, but when it came right down to it, private citizens exercised better judgement than those who are supposedly trained to deal with precisely these kinds of situations.
The objective data are clear; there is no reason to fear the exercise of this Constitutional right. It is time for the fear mongering to cease.
