New Quinnipiac University Poll Addresses Gun Issues in Virginia

WTVR CBS 6 reports that a new Quinnipiac University poll shows that a substantial number of respondents support background checks for all gun buyers and reinstatement of handgun rationing:

The poll found that 94 to 5 percent, of voters, including 90 to 8 percent among Republicans, want the background checks.

Voters also support 62 to 32 percent a Virginia law, repealed in 2012, which limited a person to buying only one handgun per month, as opposed to current law which has no limit on handgun purchases.

Republicans oppose the limit 57 to 39 percent.

White men are divided, with 46 percent supporting the limit and 50 percent opposed. Every other listed party, gender, educational, age and racial group supports the limit on handgun purchases.

Virginia voter attitudes on other gun issues, according to the poll, are:

• Support 54 – 41 percent stricter gun laws in the state;
• 49 percent say it’s too easy to buy a gun in Virginia, while 2 percent say it’s too difficult and 38 percent say it’s “about right;”
• Voters say 66 – 23 percent that new gun laws will not interfere with the right to own guns;
• If more people carried guns, Virginia would be less safe, 53 percent of voters say, while 35 percent say it would be safer.

“Many observers have commented about how much Virginia has changed politically from its deep red history to a leaning Democratic hue in little more than a decade,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

“They generally cite the Democrats’ ability to carry the state in the most recent presidential, U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races. But what also seems to be lining up in the Democratic column is Virginia voters’ values on some hot-button issues.”

When I see polls about back ground checks, I always want to see the actual question that was asked.  In this case, there was no additional information given, just a generic question:

31. Do you support or oppose requiring background checks for all gun buyers?

Given the actual question, I'm not surprised the number is so high.  It would be interesting to see where those numbers would fall if the poll had given some background before asking the question.  Knowing that so-called "universal" background checks barely got 51% support in Nevada last election and failed to pass in Maine, being informed on exactly what "background checks for all gun buyers" entails makes a big difference.  The same could be said for the question about stricter gun laws.  It was a one line question with no context.  Nothing was said about Virginia having crime rates that are at all time lows.  So, exactly what did those polls think stricter laws would accomplish?

The poll does indicate some important trends however.  Several years ago, VSSA members heard then Delegate and VSSA member Bill Janis at a VSSA Annual Meeting, discuss the changing demographics of the Commonwealth and what that would mean for our firearm freedoms going forward.  The trends on the "hot-button issues" that were part of this poll, including gun control, seem to confirm what Janis predicted at that meeting - that we need to come to grips that Virginia will change and we need to change with it.  Our parent organization, the NRA, has already moved in that direction by adding faces like National and World Champion Shooter Julie Golob,  Latino shooter Gabby Franco, and Colion Noir, a black pro-rights activist, to the faces spreading the NRA message.  We need to go beyond the "old white-guy" if we are going to preserve our freedoms.

I'll be on NRATV.com at 3:40 today talking about the poll with Cam Edwards of NRANews' Cam and Company.

CBS6 Talks With Dance's Sporting Goods About Open and Concealed Carry

Recently, an individual walked into Henrico Doctors Hospital and was arrested for carrying a firearm.  The hospital has a no firearms policy.  CBS 6 decided to do a story on where it is legal to carry concealed and open and decided to go to Dance's Sporting Goods in Colonial Heights for the report.


Dance's Sporting Goods is the preferred FFL for the VSSA Annual Members Raffle.

McAuliffe Says He will Sign Sunday Hunting Bill

Yesterday, the Virginia Senate passed the House bill allowing hunting on private property on Sunday.  The News and Advance reports that a spokesman for Governor Terry McAuliffe said the Governor will sign the bill.  This is good news and a change of position as reported by the Free Lance Star earlier this year:

The last two governors said they supported Sunday hunting on private land, but candidate McAuliffe stated in our interview with him last October that he favored the status quo. Sources, though, say a veto would be unlikely.

The news of the bill's passage cheered the pro-Sunday hunting folks who have been working on this for years, but really stepped up their lobbying this year.  This victory was achieved when they were able to get the bill assigned to the House Agriculture Committee instead of the killing field of the subcommittee that had deep-sixed the bill the last several years.  The News and Advance caught of with one hunter that will be impacted by the bill and he sounded happy about the vote:

The vote cheered hunters in the Roanoke Valley, including Daniel Hartman, 16, an avid baseball player who was looking at guncleaning supplies at Roanoke’s Sportsman’s Warehouse on Tuesday evening with his father. 

“Once I started playing travel ball, I noticed I wasn’t getting much hunting time,” said Daniel, who lives in Roanoke County and does much of his hunting on family land.

There is possibly another benefit this new law will have not only for hunters, but all Virginians, courtesy of Mark Holmberg at CBS6 back in November..

Coyotes an Increasing Problem in Virginia

This isn't news to Virginia hunters.  There have been increasing reports of coyote sightings by hunters, but now suburban residents are seeing more of them.  Coyotes are in every part of Virginia.  Last night, WTVR CBS 6 had this story.  Coyotes are playing havoc with the Commonwealth's deer herd and on small game, and even kill domestic animals in suburban areas.  I had a coyote on my trail camera two of the last three winters.   I've noticed a reduction in the number of deer I have had on camera this year, seeing only one doe/fawn pair, when in years past I had several family groups on film during the summer.

Can Cuccinelli Win?

According to a new Hampton University Poll and former Wilder Chief of Staff and Democratic Stratigist Paul Goldman, only if he makes a mid course correction with a month left in the campaign:

Their numbers show us seven KEYS to the current state of the race.

They also show that while Cuccinelli seems to have a chance in terms of common sense – there are still enough voters undecided – there is a very slim if any statistical chance.

He appears to need to get 2/3 of the undecided vote, these Virginians concentrated in a few larger metro areas as is typical in a VA GUV race.

But as will be clear shortly, without a mid-course correction of the AG’s strategy by his top strategy guy Chris LaCivita – there is not mathematical reason to think Cuccinelli can win.

What is that correction?  In the final month, he needs to find a positive message of why Virginia voters should vote for him, and just a message of vote against Terry McAuliffe.  It's a truism in politics that you have to give voters a reason to vote for you.  So far, it would seem Cuccinelli hasn't done that.  There is still time left to do so.  The question is, will he?