So says a Pew Poll. It’s funny how the media regards this as mysterious. But that’s probably because Millennials aren’t voting the way most people do in that regard. Like I’ve said time and time again, if they don’t vote the issue, whether they support the Second Amendment or not won’t amount to spit.
Glenn Reynolds notes “Also, anti-gun hysteria was a specific boomer phenomenon, and the people affected by it are as old as Hillary and Bernie now. Later generations are reverting to the American norm.” Most of the gun control we’re dealing with today was enacted by members of the “Greatest Generation,” and the Silents. I actually think Baby Boomers, as a whole, are less into gun control than their parents were.
Was thinking on the generational difference myself, and am on the same page wrt Silents and Greatests. But the Boomers were super violent.
Strange that the generation that used guns to win a war and protected out freedoms would not like them……
I would think they would be solid pro gun.
Gun control more or less is the movement of old white women.
Maybe.
I’m convinced the only anti-gunners left who matter are rich people and news-media liberals. If it weren’t for them the gun control crusade would have already been dead and buried years ago.
There aren’t enough old white women who are anti-gun to matter.
They saw a lot of changes in the 1960’s and 70’s. All of “those people” getting uppity and demanding actual equal rights, nutcases gunning down Kennedys, King, and dozens of others. Junkies looking for a fix robbing, scaring, and shooting hundreds of store clerks. Communist inspired “revolutionaries” bombing and killing police, politicians and colleges. My parents wondered if we would survive the times.
They had a some good, but a lot of bad ideas, and we are still paying for the bad ideas today. Gun Control is just one. Some of us have looked, listened, and learned from the experience. We need to keep changing hearts and minds, one person at a time. Offer to take someone shooting this week.
Yes… Moral relativism being another one of their accomplishments.
Although I do wonder, for being the “greatest generation” the parents of the boomers didn’t do that good of a job raising their kids.
As a Millennial, it’s hard to vote the issue when the Republican Party is so terrible on most other individual rights. Patriot Act, warrantless wire taps, and now the leading Republican candidate calling for banning people based on religious affiliation, and arguing against freedom of speech. Looks like I’ll be boycotting another election.
The fight for gun-rights today is intensely personal. As in it’s your own ass on the line, because that is who the anti-gunners want to throw into prison.
If you live in a Red State, it’s not that big a deal. The threat is distant and rather hypothetical. But if you live in a Blue State? Watch out!
My personal politics I would describe as libertarian/nationalist, the exact opposite of an international-socialist. If you want to sit out the national election I won’t begrudge you that, even though the Supreme Court and possible destruction of the 2nd Amendment is on the line. But you must participate in the Primary election. Push the Republican Party in a libertarian direction while you have that chance.
I see no future for libertarian policies coming from the Democratic Party. They are hostile to 1st Amendment rights, 2nd Amendment rights, Due process rights, heck they are even hostile to the very idea of the rule of law. The narcissistic demagoguery of Obama is what has opened the path for Trump.
http://thefederalist.com/2015/12/08/the-democrats-ugly-authoritarian-turn/
The Republicans are just as bad on individual rights as the Democrats, if not worse. They push the War on Some Drugs, wars overseas, stronger police forces, increased incarceration, increased surveillance, and Carson and Trump are both even bad on guns (if you listen to them before they started running for President).
I do agree the Democrats are bad on pretty much everything, but “bad on everything, but sorta-okay on guns when it’s politically expedient”, isn’t going to get me into the Republican party.
No question the Republican overall ain’t much. But worse on individual rights than the Democrats? On overseas wars? You are too young to remember, but I lived through the Clinton administration. If you want an idea of what may be in store under Hillary just google “waco” to get a taste.
Yes the Republicans overall ain’t much, but inside the Republican Party are real factions with real power with nationally prominent leaders who are actually pushing back on big government, pushing back on the national security state, and pushing back against departing from rule of law.
There is no such group inside the Democratic Party. And the national system is rigged too much in favor of the two parties for any third party to ever get a shot at implementing libertarian policies. The only realistic hope for liberty to advance in America is from inside the Republican Party. But for that to happen requires participation.
Politics in America by nature of the constitutional system (even as degraded as it has become over the last century) is a game of inches. Change is gradual, sometimes even glacial. As frustrating as that is, that slowness is also our protection from those who would abuse power. So to establish meaningful change in America means you have to participate.
My frustration with Republicans lead me to go third party back in the 1990’s. The Clinton administration taught me the folly of that decision.
The fact is today both the Democratic Party and Republican Party are rapidly evolving. Rapidly changing into something quite different from what they were in 2000 back when GW Bush was elected President.
The question you have to ask yourself is where do you see each political party moving towards? What is the end game? What do they want? You might discover it’s worth picking a side after all, and fighting on the inside for what you want.
This is why it’s IMPERATIVE to participate in the primary process and the local elections process (often the local election process IS the primary process). Both are your chance to move the Overton Window of your chosen party.
Or I could Google Ruby Ridge. Oh, wait, that was under Bush the First. Also, while Obama has involved us in plenty of wars, none of them compare to Bush the Second’s destabilization of the Middle East. Many of the things Obama is doing that I hate were put in place by Bush.
Both parties are absolutely terrible. Yes, Clinton makes me want to vote Republican. But Trump makes me want to vote Democrat. Both have the ego and morals to make very effective tyrants. Don’t worry too much though, no matter how I vote or what I do, my state’s electoral college vote is going Republican.
If Rand Paul were following in his father’s footsteps, I’d be out knocking on doors right now. He seems to have decided to pursue the traditional Republican base instead. If he wants the libertarian vote, he knows where to find us.
It’s only fair to point out that Ruby Ridge and Waco were going to get buried and covered up by the Democrats. It took the Republican takeover in Congress in 1994 for any oversight at all in reaction to Waco and Ruby Ridge. I know, I watched some of the Ruby Ridge hearings of the US Senate subcommittee on CSPAN back in 1995.
Yes Bush the elder was in office when Ruby Ridge happened, but what lasting influence did his administration have on the party? His wing of the party is getting weaker every day.
If Rand Paul isn’t pure enough for you. Okay then. It’s partly why his candidacy is floundering, which is a damned shame. Paul isn’t pure enough for the purists. He’s still my first choice for President.
There are factions in the Republican Party that are Pro-Liberty. We need you to support them. And in the General Election, DO NOT Stay Home! Vote third party! Write in someone if nothing else.
Vote on the down ticket races. They are just as important. The woman or man you vote for in a state race may be running for national office in 10 or 20 years. If you are too lazy to spend an hour voting once every year, how committed are you? If you cannot do that, then why should anyone listen to you?
If you really care, get out and volunteer for the candidates that do not want the surveillance state. Pound some pavement for Rand Paul. Make some calls. Make a difference. Politicians fear Firearms Freedom activists because they vote and they get involved.
It isn’t about laziness, it is about the idea that voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil. I sat out the last two elections (2014 and 2012) because the Republicans are the same as the Democrats when it comes to restricting liberty.
The power that the Republicans are opposed to today, they were all in favor of when they were in the White House. The parties today are not about principles, they are about being the one with the power. Everything else is just saying what you want to hear in order to get your vote.
Until the one of the parties clean up their act, I won’t vote for either party.
Why sit back and wait for someone else to clean the stables. Vote Early – Vote Primary.
There is not a single candidate in either Primary that I am willing to back. Even in local elections, it’s Statists the whole way down.
I think it is because younger voters are less ideologically tied to a specific party (eventually they will probably get that way).
I have yet to hear a solid reason why “Republican = pro gun” and “Dem = anti gun”.
Once you strongly identify with a party, you tend to support positions just because the party does. Nothing basically wrong with that, people can’t be experts on all topics.