Vanderbilt Poll Claims Majority Of Tennesseans Approve Of Lee’s Executive Order, Red Flag Law Proposal

Image Credit: Kevin Oliver / CC

The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –

The reported results from a new poll run by Vanderbilt show that gun regulations were the third-most important issue to Tennessee voters and that those voters approve of Gov. Bill Lee’s move to sign a bill strengthening background checks for gun buys.

Vanderbilt says that the survey was administered to 1,003 registered Tennessee voters between April 19 and April 23.

The background check executive order was approved by 82% of those interviewed, with 10% against the move. The support included 72% of those who described themselves as MAGA Republicans along with support from 81% of non-MAGA Republicans, 91% of Democrats and 78% of independents.

The poll also showed 72% of Tennessee voters support a red flag law like Lee had proposed and could be part of a special session Lee has promised to call later this year.

Vanderbilt posed the question about the law in two ways, one asking about creating a law to prevent individuals who are at high risk of harming themselves or others while “preventing gun-related violence” or “preventing school shootings.”

Survey recipients supported the question using the term “school shootings” by 75% and “gun-related violence” by 72%.

“It’s not surprising that support for a red flag law in Tennessee increases when preventing school shootings is mentioned. However, that the baseline of support for such a law only trails by 3 percentage points is an indicator that this support is not a flash in the pan because of The Covenant School shooting,” said John Geer, co-director of the semi-annual Vanderbilt poll. “This close trend is seen with other proposed gun regulations as well.”

Vanderbilt said that, in 20 consecutive surveys, guns ranked last or next to last in a list of government priorities in the survey. But, this year, gun laws ranked third.

Nearly two out of three of those polled support laws requiring gun owners to securely store their firearms with 54% of Republicans, 68% of independents and 91% of Democrats supporting the notion.

Overall statewide approval for politicians was also polled with 53% approving of Lee, down 4% since November. Sen. Marsha Blackburn had 46% approval while Sen. Bill Hagerty saw a 42% approval rate.

In this poll, Tennessee voters said they preferred Donald Trump to be the Republican presidential candidate over Ron DeSantis by 19 percentage points. That differed from a fall poll that showed DeSantis had a 13-point advantage over Trump then.

In a presidential vote between Trump and President Joe Biden, 31% said they would vote for “someone else” but 52% would vote for Trump and 26% for Biden.

“We also explored what a head-to-head matchup between Biden and DeSantis would look like and even more Tennesseans – 40% – would choose to vote for someone else,” said Josh Clinton, co-director of the Vanderbilt Poll. “It’s clear there is a deep unease at what is coming next fall. Many Tennesseans would prefer different candidates in 2024 than they had in 2020.”

About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.

17 thoughts on “Vanderbilt Poll Claims Majority Of Tennesseans Approve Of Lee’s Executive Order, Red Flag Law Proposal

  • May 4, 2023 at 4:53 pm
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    Vanderbilt has consistently proven its information can’t be trusted. They were wrong on COVID, yet their advice was the only advice you’d ever see in the local news. Let’s just assume they are wrong about how most Tennesseans feel about the second amendment too.

    Reply
    • May 4, 2023 at 5:31 pm
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      Their poll is no doubt skewed hard in favor of the narrative they are pushing.

      Reply
      • May 5, 2023 at 2:54 pm
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        I truly believe that this poll done by Vanderbilt is skewed to meet their liberal bias against gun rights. My son who attended Vanderbilt several years ago saw first hand how it was done to meet specific narratives.

        Reply
  • May 4, 2023 at 6:13 pm
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    Tennessee voters better read the fine print regarding unconstitutional red flag laws. Your weapons can be confiscated purely on hearsay. A disgruntled neighbor, coworker, pissed off boyfriend or girlfriend can turn you in and your guns are gone. No hearing , no trial, no information as to why. Don’t fall for this “back door” gun confiscation scheme. The RINOs in the Statehouse and Governor’’s Office should be recalled for even considering it.

    Reply
  • May 4, 2023 at 6:20 pm
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    What does it mean when the Tennessee Conservative News invites you to comment and when you do, it responds with: “Your comment is awaiting moderation”?

    Reply
  • May 4, 2023 at 6:24 pm
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    Does the Tennessee Conservative News only accept conservative comments that it “approves” of?

    Reply
  • May 4, 2023 at 6:35 pm
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    I just sent a comment on the negative side of red flag laws and the Tennessee Conservative News marked it “ your comment is awaiting moderation” and didn’t post it. There was no foul language or anything else objectionable. Has anyone else had a post refused.

    Reply
    • May 4, 2023 at 7:24 pm
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      Mr. Martin,

      We have to have a spam filter set up to catch the huge influx of spam, much of which comes from China & Russia. However, unfortunately, the automated spam filter will catch real comments like yours for reasons I cannot guess. I go through the ‘caught’ messages multiple times (M-F) during business hours and approve all the comments that come from real people. You will see that all the comments you submitted that we ‘awaiting moderation’ have been approved.
      Unfortunately, the auto spam filter is a necessary evil for our site to be functional and not a dangerous place for fellow conservatives to visit.
      But rest assured, if a comment comes from a real person, it will be approved. It may take me a few hours to get to it, but it will be done.

      -TTC

      Reply
    • May 4, 2023 at 10:56 pm
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      I know how feel. I have many comments moderated.

      Reply
    • May 5, 2023 at 12:13 am
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      Thank you James. I wish these comments reached the uninformed. To many people in this state can’t see beyond the end of their nose. They have no idea whom is representing them in the state house. Let alone our Governor who represents Haslam’s friends. What a mess this state government is.

      Reply
  • May 4, 2023 at 11:50 pm
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    Just over 1000 people polled is not a large enough group.

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  • May 4, 2023 at 11:51 pm
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    They never called me?? I guess they just contact Democrats on the voter roles?? FAKE Poll by a liberal institution.

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  • May 5, 2023 at 2:59 am
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    Thank you Bill for your comment and thank you TTC for the clarification on “moderation”. The CCP has their nose in everything, especially in their efforts to sway Red states. We sure don’t need RINO legislators and a RINO governor helping them out.

    Reply
  • May 5, 2023 at 8:28 am
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    Sounds more like a COMMUNIST DEMORAT LEFTIST TALKING POINT WE DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS COMMUNIST LEFT WING LAW

    Reply
  • May 7, 2023 at 11:40 am
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    As long as we have mediocre news and politician coverage Tennessee will continue to slide purple
    Anyone else notice articles re Bendover Billy Lee and Tax’em Haslam b4 an election that were open about them
    There was one on Haslam (cell phone recording) that showed him speaking at a closed door meeting stating he’d get the tax increases the Tn legislature wanted in his 2nd term.
    I saw one after the election, and it was shoved off to a corner, even though it was accurate.
    Bendover Billy is a lost cause.
    Talkingheads abuse voters w.”you have to do your homework on politicians “.
    When they know very well most of us don’t have the time and resources that they do.
    It’s the talking heads job, biased as they are.

    Reply

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