Most voters nationwide support stricter gun laws, and Florida is no exception.
According to a new poll from Team Friday and ThinkNow, five out of six registered voters in the Sunshine State say they would support tougher gun laws.
At 83%, Florida voters’ support for gun control measures outstrips that of more liberal states such as California and New York, both of which registered at 78% in the poll.
The only high-population state where voters were more amenable to new gun restrictions is Texas, a traditionally red state where, according to CBS News, 45.7% of adults either own a gun or live with someone who does.
Of all gun control measures floated in the poll, universal background checks were the most popular. They are supported by 64% of Democrats, 65% of Republicans and 83% of independent voters.
Bipartisan majorities also said they were in favor of red flag laws, raising the minimum age for gun purchases to 21, and requiring licensure to carry a concealed firearm.
Fewer than half of voters said they believed that owning a gun would make them safer. At 47%, non-Hispanic White voters were more likely than any other group to say so, with other blocs significantly less amenable to the safety argument — just 39% of Hispanic voters said they’d feel more safe owning a gun than not.
On the whole, millennials were more likely to say that gun ownership makes a positive impact on personal safety, with 54% of White millennials and the same number of Black millennials agreeing with that statement. They were joined by 36% of Hispanic millennials and 35% of Asian millennials.
But that belief coexists with a general support for tougher gun laws, which are desired by 62% of millennial women and 64% of Millennial men.
At 52%, non-Hispanic White millennials were the least supportive, but they were buoyed by more than 70% of their Hispanic, Asian and Black peers.
A potential cause for concern — referred to by the pollster as “optimism creep” — is that nearly two-thirds of millennials said they would attempt to stop an active shooter. Overall, 75% of adult male gun owners, regardless of age, said they would try to stop an active shooter if they had a gun.
“The overwhelming position that participants would engage with an active shooter suggests that optimism creep is a real issue,” the polling memo said. “Working with media figures representing superheroes can help demonstrate the fallacy that ‘heroism’ exists as the exception, not the norm.”
