Poll: Majority of Marylanders Want Stricter Gun Laws

From bans on assault-style weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines to fingerprinting anyone purchasing a gun, a new poll finds that a majority of Marylanders want stricter state gun laws.

Eighty-two percent of those surveyed in a poll conducted by the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center at Goucher College believe those purchasing a gun should be fingerprinted.

The poll also found:

• 83 percent support requiring a license for handgun buyers.
• 77 percent of those polled support prohibiting anyone who was involuntarily committed—for any length of time—to a mental health facility from purchasing a gun.
• 61 percent support a statewide ban on the sale of assault weapons.
• 59 percent support a statewide ban on the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets.

Last month the Maryland Senate approved sweeping changes to gun laws that requires a license for all handgun purchases, bans of sales of assault-style weapons and ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds, requires fingerprinting for new gun purchases, and prohibits anyone involuntarily committed involuntarily for mental health reasons or who spent 30 days in a state mental hospital from owning a gun.

The House of Delegations held hearings earlier this month on the same legislative package.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has made stricter gun laws a major component of his 2013 legislative priorities list in the wake of school shootings at Newtown Elementary School in Connecticut and closer to home at Perry Hall High School.

The poll, conducted between March 3-7, involved 791 Maryland residents via landline phones and cell phones. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

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