Eighty percent of Floridians oppose reverting to pre-Parkland gun laws, poll finds
The vast majority of Florida voters are not in favor of changing the age limit for purchasing a firearm, according to a new poll by MediaLab@FAU, working in conjunction with Florida Atlantic University's PolCom Lab.
The results of the poll, conducted between April 4 and 9 by Mainstreet Research, indicate that despite ongoing efforts by state politicians to put the age for acquiring a firearm back to 18 from its current 21, most Florida voters prefer to keep guns out of the hands of teenagers.
Of all of the questions posed in the poll initiated by MediaLab@FAU's advanced journalism students, who drafted questions aimed at capturing the mood of Floridians towards the end of the state legislative session (May 2) as well as President Trump's first 100 days in office (April 30), this one came back with the clearest, seemingly bipartisan answer.
Voters were asked: 'Should Florida legislators change the age for gun purchases, now 21, back to 18?' A remarkable 80% of Florida voters answered no. Only 12.8% responded with a yes, while 7% were unsure about their answer.
After the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, leading to the murder of 17 students and faculty, a local and national outcry ensued. The Florida legislature and then-governor Rick Scott raised the required age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21 as part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public High School Safety Act.
However, there have been repeated efforts to repeal the law. Most recently, HB 759, which reduces the minimum age for purchasing a firearm to 18, passed in the Florida House and was sent to the Florida Senate on April 8.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has voiced his support for legislators' efforts to allow 18-year-olds to buy guns again, and mentioned this issue that kicked off the legislative session in March.
On April 17, a 20-year-old carried out a mass shooting at Florida State University, leading to the deaths of two people and the wounding of five others.
The news provided a painful reminder of the ongoing problem of gun violence. Senate Rules Chairwoman Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said Monday that her committee will not take up HB 759, the News Service of Florida reported, thus leaving the age at 21.
Even if the Senate declines to take up the bill now, the fact that it passed in the House for the third year in a row and is strongly supported by the NRA makes it a bill that could yet become law.
Dr. Kevin Wagner, the Co-Executive Director of the PolCom Lab, offered some insight on the gaps between where Floridians are polling on this issue, and how their elected representatives in Tallahassee behave. In other words, if four out of five Floridians oppose lowering the age to get a gun, what might account for the fact that the bill once again gained such widespread support in the House, passing on March 26 with a 78-34 vote?
'This issue often represents a case of the 'intensity gap' in politics,' said Dr. Wagner, a Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters.
'While polls may find voters who oppose lowering the gun age, those who support it may care more passionately and organize more effectively, which can carry outsized influence in legislative decision-making.'
Gender differences were noticeable in the poll results. Among the 12.8% of respondents who said they are in favor of lowering the limits back to 18, men and women polled differently: 19.1% of those in favor were male, while only 6.8% of those in favor were female. In contrast, the 80% of voters against the new legislation consisted of 73.3% male voters and 86.3% female voters.
Of those polled in the sample, 89.1% of Democrats, 72.1% of Republicans, and 81.5% of independent voters answered 'no' to the question of whether the age to buy a gun should once again be 18. The group most opposed to the proposed age reduction for a firearm was white college-educated voters, over 85% of whom oppose letting people under 21 buy guns.
The poll for MediaLab was conducted during the first two weeks of April by Mainstreet Research, which polled 961 Florida voters over the age of 18. The survey was conducted with text messaging and an online panel. The survey gave respondents the option to complete the survey in English and Spanish. Since the poll was conducted partly with an online sample, there cannot be a margin of error assigned to this poll, Mainstreet Research explained. The margin of error for the poll is +/- 3.2% at the 95% confidence level.
This story was produced by MediaLab@FAU, a project of Florida Atlantic University School of Communication and Multimedia Studies. MediaLab is supported by a grant from Press Forward, a national movement to strengthen democracy by revitalizing local news and information. News organizations are welcome to republish our work, as long as they credit MediaLab and the writers.
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