High-schoolers want stricter gun laws, new survey finds

As students from Florida and across the country poured into Washington, D.C., for the March for Our Lives, a new survey showed high-schoolers want stricter gun laws. And they don’t want their teachers armed. The survey, conducted by the education technology platform Newsela, was conducted about a month after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in which 17 people were killed and 17 wounded.

Florida high-schoolers responding to the survey were more likely than high-schoolers across the nation to favor stricter gun laws — and less enthusiastic about the idea of arming teachers.

From March 12 to March 21, teachers using Newsela assigned articles from the website about gun violence, school safety and the role of guns in America.

After reading the materials, students in Grades 9 through 12 evaluated several statements:

Gun laws in the United States should be stricter.

Florida: 76 percent agree, 19 percent disagree.

Nationwide: 67 percent agree, 26 percent disagree.

Bump stocks (devices that can make semi-automatic guns shoot faster) should be banned.

Florida: 65 percent agree, 18 percent disagree.

Nationwide: 57 percent agree, 24 percent disagree.

Teachers should be allowed to carry licensed guns to school to protect their students.

Florida: 19 percent agree, 66 percent disagree.

Nationwide: 28 percent agree, 55 percent disagree.

The minimum age to buy assault weapons should be raised from 18 to 21 years old. Florida: 75 percent agree, 17 percent disagree.

Nationwide: 67 percent agree, 24 percent disagree.

The survey was conducted online. One drawback: unlike scientifically conducted public opinion polls, the survey isn't a random sample of high school students across the state or nation; it’s the high schoolers whose schools use Newsela.

Still, a large number of students completed surveys, 3,100 in Florida and 25,500 across the country. Responses came from 3,513 schools.