Democrat Maryland Governor Candidate Suggests Ban on Shotguns

Ben Jelous

The Democrat governor candidate in Maryland for 2018 has implied the state's extreme gun laws do not go far enough. On MSNBC, he said the following:

“We will, in the next [Maryland state] legislative session, have to have a real conversation about how we finish the job here of our assault weapons ban. But we have to go much further. Journalists were killed with a shotgun.”

Here is the video on Youtube, from the Finkelblog:

Link to Youtube video

The active shooter in the Capital Gazzette shooting used a shotgun. Shotguns are extremely popular in the United States. Cartridge shotguns have been actively produced for 150 years. Shotguns make up about 1/3 of the private firearms stock. There are over 100 million shotguns in private hands in the country.

What is Ben Jelous attempting to accomplish with this message? 

A recent poll found that Maryland voters are evenly split on who to trust on gun control. From wbalt.com:

Kromer oversaw the survey of 617 Marylanders, who were asked, "Who do you have more confidence in to handle the issue of gun violence? The Republican governor? Or the Democrats?" The answer was a statistically equal split of 39 percent favoring Gov. Larry Hogan and 40 percent favoring the Democrats.

 Maryland Goucher poll 

The message of banning shotguns does not strike me as something that will bring Democrat voters to the voting booth. It is well designed to energize Second Amendment supporters.


Ben Jelous does not seem well versed in the intricacies of firearm nomenclature and technology. If he attempts to finesse this gaff, he is likely to make it worse.

This is a common problem for people who are ignorant about guns, and who made the choice to be unarmed. They see no value in firearms. They see no cost to disarming others, because it does not cost *them* anything.

Those who have made the choice to be armed, are not willingly and easily disarmed.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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