Newsmax:
A majority of Texas are opposed to laws that would allow people in the state to openly carry weapons with or without gun licenses, according to a new poll.
The University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll found that only 32 percent of Texas approved of open carry while the remainder, 68 percent, would either prefer no legal handguns in public or to keep the current laws allowing licensed carry of concealed handguns.
According to the poll, nearly 25 percent of respondents said Texans should never be allowed to carry handguns in public, while only 10 percent said they should always be allowed with no license required.
Nearly one in two Texans, 45 percent, would allow concealed handguns in public as long as the carriers were licensed, while another 22 percent would allow those with licenses to carry handguns openly, meaning that an overwhelming majority of 77 percent back the right for licensed gun owners to carry their guns in public, either openly or concealed.
"A lot of people are in the middle, and there are a lot of support around licenses," said Daron Shaw, co-director of the poll and a professor of government at UT-Austin. "If I’m from Connecticut, it might look like 50 degrees of crazy."
"This looks like people like the way things are now. If you’re a Republican, you could go further, though, as long as you talk about licensing or permitting."
The votes were more sharply distinct when tallied between Republicans and Democrats, and conservatives and moderate Republicans, according to the UT/Texas Tribune researchers.
Thirty percent of tea party types said Texans should always be allowed to carry without permits, while the "never be allowed" option was basically ignored by them.
Among Republicans in general, 6 percent said Texans should always be allowed to carry and 12 percent said never. Among Democrats, 45 percent said never and only 2 percent said always, the poll says.
In each group, more than 50 percent would allow public carry of handguns with permits.
Most Republicans and Democrats approved of concealed weapons while a majority of tea party voters favored open carry and also supported concealed carry.
"Half of Republicans want to stick with concealed. Unlicensed open carry is a starkly minority position, with only 10 percent of support," said Jim Henson, who heads the Texas Politics Project at UT-Austin and co-directs the poll.
"These numbers should dispel any mystery you might have seen over legislators who didn’t want to vote on this. You’ve got about a quarter in each party not toeing the party line. In the Republican Party, this is a clearly conservative issue."
The poll also revealed that 36 percent of the voters felt that the state’s current gun control laws should be stricter, while 22 percent believed they should be less strict, and 36 percent said they should be left alone.
"Texas as it stands right now is a pretty pro-guns state, and even though open carry may seem to be an anomaly, you still see Texans fairly comfortable with the status quo," Henson said.
