Concealed guns OK with voters in poll

Nearly nine out of 10 people taking part in an online poll conducted by Sun Newspapers believe Ohio should allow civilians to carry concealed weap­ons.

In the poll, which is on the newspaper’s Web site, 87.5 per­cent of those voting favor let­ting people tote hidden guns. The results are for voting done from Nov. 7, when the poll started, through 5 p.m. Nov. 11.

A total of 399 votes were cast during the five-day period, according to Dennis Seeds, edi­torial systems manager for Sun Newspapers and coordinator of its www.sunnews.com Web site.

Seeds said polling will con­tinue on the concealed-carry is­sue. Visitors to the site’s home page can vote on the concealed-weapons question — along with two others — and check current poll results.

According to Seeds, the Sun poll is designed to gauge read­ers’ opinion but is not based on a scientific sample of the pop­ulation. It is set up so you can­not vote twice on the issue from the same computer, he said.

The poll comes on the heels of a Sun Newspapers story in which state Sen. Eric D. Finger­hut, D-25, of Shaker Heights al­leged there is a “secret agreement” between the gun lobby and the legislature’s Re­publican leadership to hold off on a House-passed concealed-weapons bill until after the elec­tion, then ram it through in the lame-duck session that starts next week.

Gov. Bob Taft has vowed to veto the bill unless it gets more support from law enforcement groups.

Jim Irvine, chairman of the Ohioans for Concealed Carry’s political action committee, said while Internet poll results gen­erally “favor the conservative side” of issues, public sentiment clearly supports the concealed-carry concept. Irvine said the Sun poll results “do not surprise me.

“I would expect that,” he said. “All reasonable polls show Ohioans favor concealed-carry. Ohioans favor the right to pro­tect themselves from muggers, rapists and other criminals.”

Toby Hoover, executive di­rector of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, chal­lenged that assertion, saying most surveys and polls show 75-85 percent of the state’s resi­dents do not favor letting civil­ians carry concealed weapons. She said gun-rights groups are typically quick to cast votes in online polls like the one done by the newspaper.

“The Internet polls are only as good as who gets them up on their (Web) site and gets their members to vote,” Hoover said.

The Sun poll asks, “Should Ohio allow civilians to carry concealed weapons?” Other current poll questions deal with school vouchers and sex-of­fender notification.