Here are three polls regarding Open Carry in Florida and how they are worded
POLL: Guns in the open
The "open carry" movement advocates are pushing legislation in Florida that would let people openly tote their guns. Do you support the move?
Poll: Florida handgun owners
Should Florida handgun owners be allowed to carry their weapons in the open?
Should Floridians be allowed to carry weapons openly?
No way. We have already given the gun lovers too much freedom with their guns in Florida. Now to just let them carry their guns openly and wave them at everybody? Are you nuts? Absolutely yes. The vast majority of states allow people to carry guns openly. It is a right that all gun owners should have, despite the whining of the gun-hating liberals.
As of this writing, the first poll is 79% for, 21% against – 2915 responses. The second (and the poll using the most neutral language) is 90 to 10 with 1129 total responses. The final one, with the most divisive language possible, is 56% for, 44% against, with 3381 responses.
Let’s examine that for a bit. The most neutral question, Should Florida handgun owners be allowed to carry their weapons in the open?, has the greatest support. Toss in loaded terms like openly tote and then put scare quotes around “open carry” and the percentages change (although still the support is overwhelmingly positive).
Now, make either choice insulting to the other side, and instead of getting people’s feeling toward a specific outcome, you get people voting for which choice insults their enemies the best. And it brings out people who are more interested in taking a jab at the other side than who really care about the issue.
It is clear that Open Carry has support, but it’s easy to make a poll an Us vs Them and get results to push the opposite view or to make it look more contentious than it really is.