Guns and the young vote
While some results seemed predictable, the gun answer did not. Fifty-five percent of the youngest respondents favor legal concealed weapons, which became law in Wisconsin last year. Support for guns declines as age increases, falling to 36 percent among those 60 and older.
“Whether you think it’s a generational change, or growing up with shoot-em-up games, or maybe they just haven’t decided ‘these things are really dangerous, I don’t want them around,’ ” Franklin says, the gun result illustrates a key point.
You cannot paint the young with a broad, liberal brush.
July 6th, 2012 at 7:21 am
Excellent point. When I see young (<30) at the range, I make it a point to engage them in conversation and I usually find they are quite conservative. I think the country is going to be alright. 'Still have to kick the snot out of Liberals in every election!
July 6th, 2012 at 9:01 am
Even if they are more liberal, being a supporter for gun rights opens up a pandora’s box of self-reliance, suspicion of goverment action, exposure to insane and convoluted law, and a realization of the arrogant mass ignorance of the media-activist complex.
“If they’re wrong about guns what else are they wrong about?” is when someone starts doubting the happy-happy liberal cocoon.
Of course that requires them to see gun rights as an acutal right. If they take the Fuddish or Cosbyish line of “I *deserve* my gun because I’m special, and you proles don’t.” Well, that’s that.
July 6th, 2012 at 10:06 am
When will our side eventually realize what the younger generation already has: gun ownership and carry is a liberal position.
I’ve sensed this a long time, but this study highlights it: Baby Boomers are gun controllers; Gen-X is the cross-over generation and those that come hence see guns as part of a liberal lifestyle.
The politics of the young are not changing. They will forever be liberal. It’s just that they do not view guns the way previous generations do. There are lots of reasons I think this is so, but I won’t bore you with them.
So yes…we are winning. But not because we’re turning liberal into anti-liberals, but because we’re making guns the liberal position of the future.
Of course, this means the Party Of Stupid will make rabid gun-control a part of their platform of the future, if only to avoid being in cahoots with those liberals clinging to their guns and frapachinos.
July 6th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
This once again goes to show that support for gun rights cuts across the political spectrum, and is not tightly correlated with social conservatism. I dare say that if you asked about civil unions or gay marriage among the same groups above, the results would look similar, with younger people more supportive.