It’s a surprise to absolutely no one by now that campus carry is an issue close to my heart. As a Georgia State University graduate, I believe students deserve better and I feel the state is wrong in hindering their right to protect themselves. Because of this, it irritates me greatly when someone tells me “No one really cares about campus carry” or “It’s just not a hot topic right now”. Oh but it is– in Georgia and across the nation– so you can imagine my confusion upon the release of the AJC poll recently stating 78% of Georgia voters oppose legalizing weapon possession on college campuses. Well, I’ll be darned. I thought this was an interesting tidbit of information so much so that several folks did some investigating and this is what we found.
Let’s discuss by playing the circle game:
- Jay Bookman is the AJC writer here and polling connoisseur.
- Bookman’s boss at the AJC is Bert Roughton …the Senior Managing Editor.
- Mr. Roughton’s wife is a lady named Melinda Ennis Roughton.
- Mrs. Ennis Roughton holds the ever-so-ironic occupation of Co-Head for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in Atlanta.
- She is also Executive Director for Georgia’s WIn List, (the Democrat organization looking to elect liberal women to higher offices in Georgia).
- Georgia WIN will be having their annual Legislative Breakfast on January 30th and the keynote speaker is Jay Bookman.
Now, I am not discrediting the entire poll (which is available here: AJC POLL January 2014) but I do want to consider EXACTLY who was polled.
We’re talking about respondents of which:
- 41% believe the Georgia economy is not in good shape,
- 47% believe we should expand Medicare through the ACA,
- and only 38% of the respondents had children in schools in Georgia.
Nowhere in the poll was the concept of the campus carry act explained: that it would only apply to legal weapons carry permit holders (those over the age of 21 or honorably discharged military)– meaning, people who likely already conceal carry everywhere else in the state.
People uninformed on the issue hear, “Do you want to give college kids guns to take to take to their beer pong matches?” I take great offense to firing off questions (see what I did there) to an uninformed electorate.
I simply can’t help myself in being suspicious of ulterior motives by the AJC here when the reporter et. al is in the sack with the anti-gun lobby and the questions mislead the public. The issue is a Constitutional one….and this poll leads us to believe that 78% of Georgians don’t stand for the Constitution. Again, I am just shocked to my very core that the AJC would seek to mislead.
The Perspicacious Conservative 
Georgia Legislators are not totally stupid but these kinds of polls give justification to their not acting on the needs and concerns of law abiding Georgians. Conservatives need a website where they can go and make their voices known. Something that could be realistic.
I quit blindly accepting anything from the AJC decades ago. My dad was part of the Goldwater ’64 campaign and, even though I was very young, I remember vividly the way they twisted his words and viciously opposed the candidate. Since then it has happened over, and over again. You would think a business which depends so much on capitalism would finally have gotten it. Nope; they age old attitude is still alive and well in many major papers across the nation. They will likely continue their methods of spin to see their own agenda pushed to the remaining readers.
Nicely done!
This is so typical , I quit buying the AJC when my bird died..
Well put Perspicacious Conservative! Very proud of you!
The thugs and perps that prey on defenseless students will only stop when they get a 1st hand lesson in justice. If they even thought that one of the victims might blow their brains out, it would significantly slow their predatory practices.