A new poll released Tuesday finds 52 percent of registered voters in Florida oppose prohibiting the sale of assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines, with 42 percent supporting a prohibition.
The survey was done October 5 - 11 by the Public Opinion Research Laboratory (PORL) at the University of North Florida.
“Even in the wake of the Las Vegas shootings, Floridians are not supportive of restricting access to assault weapons,” said Dr. Michael Binder, UNF Public Opinion Research Laboratory faculty director after reviewing the results.
When broken down by party, the survey found Republicans opposed prohibiting assault weapons by 55 percent, with Democrats opposing at 47 percent.
When the questioning turned to openly carrying handguns, support wasn’t nearly as strong.
The survey found 54% of registered voters are opposed to allowing licensed individuals to openly carry handguns, while 40 percent supported the idea.
Registered voters in favor of allowing concealed guns on college campuses are also apparently in the minority.
The UNF survey found in regards to the concealed carry of handguns on college campuses, opposition stood at 59 percent, with 37 percent in support.
The poll found 78 percent of registered Democrats opposed carrying concealed handguns on campus while 54 percent of registered Republicans support concealed carry at colleges and universities.
“Even though registered voters are opposed to open carry and campus carry here in Florida, Republicans remain supportive of these issues, which could influence policy in Tallahassee during the upcoming legislative session,” Binder speculated.
Related: Read all the poll questions, responses and percentages along with party affiliation breakdowns
UNF’s Public Opinion Research Laboratory says the survey’s sampling error is plus or minus 3.96 percentage points.
Overall, there were 619 completed surveys of Florida registered voters.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
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