2005 Study: 31 Percent of Journalists Think Gun Rights 'Not Important'

In light of our ongoing analysis of liberal media coverage of the District of Columbia v. Heller gun ban case, yesterday NewsBusters Senior Editor Rich Noyes brought to my attention a 2005 survey of journalists that found some 31 percent found the right to keep and bear arms unnecessary and non-essential to their personal liberty.

That study's findings don't appear to remain archived online, but Noyes happened to have saved a print copy. Below the fold you can find the responses to the relevant question from a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press poll of journalists. The very same poll found that 68 percent of respondents voted for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) and that self-described conservatives numbered only seven percent of those polled.

On the gun question, 31 percent of respondents thought that the 2nd Amendment's guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms was "not necessary." It was the highest "not necessary" rating for any constitutionally-protected right listed in the survey.

Poll respondents were asked: "The U.S. Constitution protects certain rigthts, but not everyone considers each right important. I am going to read you some rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. For each, please tell me how important it is that you have that right: is it essential that you have this right, important but not essential, or not important..."

Special thanks to NewsBuster Paul Detrick for scanning the image above.