"Shall Issue" Poll Follow Up

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Gun control is the topic. As I continue to discover, many assumptions are made about how law enforcement officers feel in this regard. The most common assumption I've experienced is this: cops don't like for citizens to have guns. That is a FALSE assumption (as we're about to see) that needs to be corrected. Last week Officer.com ran a poll to find out how law enforcement professionals actually do feel regarding "Right To Carry" laws. My intent in posting the poll was to see if officers really didn't like citizens having guns - to the extent that could be determined by such a simple tool. The question was and results are: Is your state a "shall issue" state or open carry state? Yes, and it doesn't bother me a bit. 341 votes / 49% Yes, and it concerns me some. 101 votes / 14% No, and I'm happy about it. 53 votes / 7% No, but I wish it was. 121 votes / 17% No it's not. 68 votes / 9% Let me chime in here real quick on my own situation. I live in Maryland which is NOT a Shall Issue state. People CAN get gun permits but they are strictly controlled and the state's leadership acts in a manner that displays an anti-gun bias. I've been around guns all of my adult life as a circumstance of my profession and view them as the valuable tools they can be. As to those answers. Numbering the potential responses 1 through 5, top to bottom, numbers 1 and 4 are obviously pro-gun or, at the minimum, not anti-gun. Number 3 is anti-gun. Number 2 CAN be anti-gun, but it can also be just officers who are concerned about the potential officer safety aspects related to Shall Issue situations. Number 5 is a neutral answer; no opinion expressed. Even if we use #2 and #3 as "anti-gun" the total votes is 154 or 21%. That's about one-fifth of the total votes. The votes for #1 alone is almost half who obviously have no issues with "Shall Issue" circumstances and situations. When we add on the 121 votes for #4 we see the "pro gun" outlook jump up to 66% or two-thirds of those who voted. Total votes cast in the week that the poll was up = 684. That's not a HUGE number but considering our polls normally get between 500-1000 votes, it's near in our average range for response. So, looking at the numbers; using a sample of ten officers - two of the ten would be against Shall Issue laws or at least concerned about situations created by same where officer safety is concerned. Six in ten are clearly in favor of Shall Issue laws. If you consider #3 the only true "anti-Shall Issue" or "anti-gun" response, that would be one officer out of ten. Less actually... seven out of a hundred. What do you think?

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