Saturday, November 22, 2014

FL: Opinion Swinging Toward Campus Carry? (poll)




After the recent shooting on campus in Florida, Florida Carry quickly made the case that the campus was a "gun free" or "defenseless victim" zone, and that removing the prohibition on legal guns would make campus safer.  From new4jax.com:
Friday said several lawsuits are pending against Florida universities that refuse to allow students the right to carry weapons in class. In states like Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Kansas, Friday said, school shooting statistics are remarkably lower than the rest of the nation.

"Every state that allows law-abiding students to carry guns on campus, every one of those schools has not had a mass shooting since they enacted that rule," Friday said.
The case for campus carry is seldom allowed full presentation in the old media, but a fair presentation of the argument was given in the news4jax.com article.  The article also includes a poll offering several options.   Online polls are not scientific, but they do measure "intensity" fairly well.   They measure the ratio of people for and against, who are willing to take the time to fill out an online poll.

In the Florida campus carry poll, the results are outside of the norm.  Most second amendment related polls show pro-rights support of from 3-10 to 1 in favor of more freedom.    This online poll shows an astonishing 12 to 1 support for more freedom on campus!

Link to online poll, left side of page

Poll question:

Would allowing guns on college campuses make students safer?

 I think more people carrying guns on campus would minimize shootings  48%  (1305 votes)


Yes, but only people with concealed carry permits should have them at college. - 43% (1182 votes)

 Guns should be allowed on campus, but only locked in vehicles. (Current law). - 1% (40 votes)

 Only law enforcement personnel should be allowed to carry guns on campus. - 8% (213 votes)

Note that the status quo, that is, the current law, is the least popular, with only 1 percent of the votes.

Coming right after a campus shooting, this is a very interesting result.

 ©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

Update: As of 18:00 MST, 24 November, 2014, the ratio is now nearly 15-1 in favor of more freedom on campus.  This is the highest ratio that I have observed in a second amendment related poll. 

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