They aren’t getting any generational shift on the issue:
In the study, Millennials opposed gun control by a margin of 50-48 percent. Although it’s a small margin, WAMC Northeast Public Radio points out it is “roughly at par with the attitudes of older generations.”
Though, if Millennials say they are against gun control but don’t vote against it, it won’t rightly matter. The GOP so far has not shown itself very effective with this generation, so the gun control groups can still hold out hope that this generation keeps voting Democratic, despite the party’s position on guns, because of other issues.
The question in my mind is whether Millennials who are against gun control will treat it like other things they’re against – just ignore it in the “Connecticut” fashion of civil disobedience.
Maybe. That’ll only take you so far though.
I think the Democrats and Republicans are soon going to find out that these “Millennials” are actually Libertarians.
A lot of them really are naive enough to be Democrats. I remember watching them pat themselves on their backs for how cool they were to vote for a black guy for president. Not because he would be a good president, but because how awesome would it be to have the first black president. Granted, McCain was a horrible, horrible, horrible candidate who never could have (or should have) been elected president.
The real problem is the GOP is so out of touch with America. I get the impression that they all talk amongst themselves and decide who they figure should get the nod or something. They have to be Establishment types, they have to promise changes, but not actually articulate them, or have them be so arcane that voters get bored hearing of the details, and of COURSE they have to demand that not a single cent can ever be cut from the military, and that it’s the role of government to decide who can marry whom. That turns off Millennials, and just about everyone who isn’t a bible thumper.
But the GOP is toast. As Obama is handing them a surefire victory in the midterms, they’re all huddling around trying to figure out how to grant amnesty to illegals to appease their Chamber of Commerce and big business friends. 2016 goes to a Democrat. You heard it here first.
Sort of. One thing I’ve noticed is that they’ve been successfully programmed to feel guilty about things like driving and their ecological footprint. Though a lot of Xers have been as well.
Yeah, but I wonder how many of them turned the heat down this winter of global warming, because of all those little carbon dioxides that get liberated to keep them warm. Also, calling CO2 “carbon” makes it sound dirty, which is why the eco-fascists call it that. Calling CO2 “carbon dioxide” makes them at least realize that it’s their breath that’s supposedly the problem. But I digress..
I think that only rich countries can afford to worry about their carbon footprint. And Obama is sure doing a fine job making sure the Millennials won’t be as rich as their parents. So instead of driving hybrids, they’ll be driving whatever their parents hand down to them. Carbon dioxide guilt be damned. What an awful position to be in, to believe that gas cars are killing the Earth, but having to drive one every day nonetheless. Hey, if they’re gonna be liberal, they may as well be the self-hating type.
It’s not something I understand. I’d club a baby seal if it got in the way of me driving my car. Though I turn the heat down every winter to about 65, much to Bitter’s chagrin, but that’s because I don’t like paying my money to PECO for the gas, not because I feel guilty.
I’m a Millennial, and I know very few people in my age range, most of whom were lefties at college, who actually bought into that. Then again I was born and raised in a small town and went to college in another small town, so it could be geographical rather than generational.
I was in Philly during that time, and people were tripping over themselves to do something cool, now that they could vote. I also worked in a ad agency, and even those of us who were conservative or libertarian could hardly stand the guy. Yes, charisma is actually something that might be good to have in presidential campaign. Being a weird old dude who fits basically every negative GOP stereotype might actually work against you. Coming on the heels of Bush didn’t help either.
I think that Bush’s presidency actually determined the 2008 presidential election in the Democrat primary selection process. No way the GOP could have won, especially if their nominee wouldn’t harshly condemn the Bush era – as opposed to promising to continue it. But joke’s on you, Obama continued it anyway. Silly proles.
I’ve been looking for information on this, but from my experience I’ve got a feeling that Millenials are the most pro-gun/pro-libertarian generation at this age that we’ve had in many generations. I know when I was that age I wasn’t strongly pro-gun at all and even voted for some anti-gun candidates because it was a very low-end issue for me. But of the millenials I know many are far more pro-gun that I could imagine.
So if people tend to get more liberty/freedom minded (and therefore anti-gun control) as they get older, and millenials are already about as anti-gun control a group of young people as you can imagine … this may be why the old school Liberals are pushing so hard now. If they don’t win now, they never will.
I also know that when I went to the occasional gun show back when I was young it was almost all middle aged or older white guys and I figured it was correct to say that the “gun culture” was dying out. But now when I got to a gun show and work a booth as a middle aged white guy with graying hair, there’s a lot of diversity. Still a lot of middle aged white guys, but also a lot of women and younger people and people of color.
I spent about 30 minutes one Saturday talking to a mixed race couple at our booth about guns for concealed carry. Not just mixed race, but gay and mixed race and rather obviously gay. It reminded me of how far we’ve come.
If all it does is break the view of the GOP as the pro-gun and the Democrats as the anti-gun parties, that might be worthwhile; then you can hit up a politician for his views on guns without the rest of the baggage.