Poll: Floridians Really Don't Want Guns on Campuses | Riptide 2.0 | Miami | Miami New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Miami, Florida
Navigation

Poll: Floridians Really Don't Want Guns on Campuses

Floridians can't agree on a lot. Which is to be expected in such a diverse swing state, and the results of USF's annual Sunshine State Survey certainly attest to that. Floridians are split on all sorts of hot button issues from Common Core to offshore drilling.  In fact, one of...
Share this:
Floridians can't agree on a lot, which is to be expected in such a diverse swing state. The results of University of South Florida's annual Sunshine State Survey certainly attest to that. Floridians are split on all sorts of hot-button issues from Common Core testing to offshore oil drilling. 

In fact, one of the few things that it seems the vast majority of Floridians agree with is that they don't want students carrying guns on campuses. It's by far the issue Floridians agree on the most in the new poll.
 
The poll is overseen by Dr. Susan MacManus for USF and uses the Nielsen Corporation to carry out the polling. Released every year, the poll provides a snapshot of the political leanings of Floridians at the moment. 

One of the main segments of the polls asks Floridians if moving forward with a possible policy change would be moving Florida in the right direction (green), wrong directions (red) or whether they had no opinion (yellow). 

Here are the results: 
As you can see, Floridians are split on a lot of issues, and only agree on a few. 

Floridians do seem to agree that the state should have tougher water quality regulations (hey, who doesn't like clean water?) and 9 out of 10 support law enforcement officers wearing body cameras. The concealed weapons on campuses question is the issue Floridians are most united against, however. This is despite the fact that a legislator always brings up the topic every year in Tallahassee. 

Elsewhere, the poll asked Floridians what they through the biggest issue facing the state was. Economy/job/unemployment was first with 22 percent. However, that's significantly down from previous years, like last year when 30 percent said it was the biggest factor. A high of 52 percent said it was the biggest factor in 2011. 

This year, 10 percent of Floridians said that K-12 education/public schools was the most important issue facing the state, while 7 percent chose crime. 
KEEP NEW TIMES FREE... Since we started New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Miami, and we'd like to keep it that way. Your membership allows us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls. You can support us by joining as a member for as little as $1.