Millennials Are Less Likely to Support Gun Control Than You'd Think



Four years ago a man pointed a gun at Ryan Bradley and called him a "white devil."

Ever since, he's been passionate about gun rights.

"I never want to be in that situation again," Bradley, 24, told NBC News. "Luckily, he didn't shoot me but I can guarantee you if there was any gun laws on the books he would probably still have his gun."

Sarah Clements, 20, became a gun control activist after her mother, a second grade teacher, survived the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

"I became an accidental activist, and realized that the only way I would be able to move forward from what happened was if I transformed my pain into positive action," Clements told NBC News.

While Nza-Ari Khepra, 19, the co-founder of violence awareness campaigns Project Orange Tree and the Wear Orange campaign has been working to prevent gun violence ever since her friend Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed in Chicago in 2013 after performing at the White House days earlier.



Millennials are often thought of as more liberal than their older peers, but recent polling shows that they're less likely than those over 30 to support stricter gun laws.

An October 2015 Gallup poll found that 50 percent of 18-29-year-olds support stricter gun laws compared to 57 percent of those 30-49, 56 percent among those 50-64, and 55 percent among those 65 and older.

This is in contrast to social issues such as sex between unmarried people, having children outside of marriage, and LGBT issues, where younger people skew far more liberal, according to Gallup Poll Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport.

"Millennials are ... less interested in gun control than those who are older, so the data suggests it's unlike a number of other attitudes say like, gay marriage where young people are much more liberal," he said. "We did not see that in our data on guns."

And a recent ABC News/Refinery 29 poll  shows that the same percentage (11 percent) of women age 18-35 list gun rights as the most important issue in this election as those who list abortion.


For Khepra and Clements, gun control isn't about taking firearms from people, it's about making sure the wrong people don't have access to dangerous weapons through proposals such as increasing background checks, implementing waiting periods after purchasing guns, and a ban on semi-automatic guns.

"We as gun reform activists need to continuously say we support the Second Amendment — we are not trying to do away with it or 'take away all the guns.' That said, I do not believe it gives us the right to own a gun anytime, by anyone, and to be taken anywhere," Clements told NBC News.

But Bradley doesn't think that more gun laws would do anything to help prevent shootings.

Bradley says he'd take gun control proponents to a gun range and have them shoot if they've never done it so they can have the experience, and then have a "civil debate" with them.

"We're talking about a fundamental right, we're talking about the Second Amendment which is a guaranteed right to self-defense," he said. Feelings don't belong. I don't think that somebody should be using derogatory language to somebody but they have the First Amendment right to do so and nobody's talking about taking that First Amendment right away. So I think that gun control supporters need to bring something more to the table than just feelings."

While Khepra has never shot a gun, she said that she didn't think that would change her support of gun restrictions.

"I've never shot a gun and I hopefully never will. That's not necessarily something that's on my to-do-list," she said. "But at the end of the day, I've been exposed to a lot of guns, I'm from the South Side of Chicago, and I can understand why people would want them, I understand the whole protection measure I definitely get that. But that's not something that I'm trying to infringe upon. I just think that there's a way to be protected and there's a way to make sure that other people around you are protected."

This debate is ongoing as the country approaches an election and deals with the recent shootings in Dallas, along with the deaths of two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, carrying guns in Louisiana and Minnesota.

"With the shootings and the deaths that have occurred since, it's possible gun attitudes have changed overall with the whole population and you never know whether it could differentially have affected young people," Newport told NBC News.

Bradley is concerned about Hillary Clinton and her possible Supreme Court picks if she's elected.

"We haven't had a candidate as bad on the Second Amendment as Hillary Clinton," he told NBC News.


For Clements, those deaths show that the Second Amendment really isn't for everyone.

"We saw in the past two weeks the realistic interpretation by law enforcement and white establishments: time and again, it's clear that the Second Amendment over-simplification that anyone can have a gun slung on their hip, and anywhere they please only applies to white people," she told NBC News.

Khepra says that no matter how the gun violence occurred, it shows that something needs to change.

"I am devastated by the current political climate. Just within the past weeks, we've seen how the many forms of gun violence ravages our nation's cities—in Baton Rouge, St. Paul, Dallas, Orlando, and countless other cities," she said.

"Although these tragedies have many differences, one commonality is the pain that manifested from far too many families and communities losing loved ones. My familiarity with this pain is what is driving me to prevent more, to make a difference."

Read more at: NBC

I didn't know this was some sort of surprise

Millennial here

TL:DR for now.

But the biggest part of the absolute failure of gun control is that things like Call Of Duty exist.

Kids have grown up playing that stupid ass game, especially millenials, and they want the guns and related HSLD stuff they had in their game. Fuck, for the years prior to Sandy Hook, CoD had links to the gun websites from the guns in the game.

It's why the Liberals have failed and are going full court press as far as gun control goes right now. If they don't go as far as they can RFN, they'll have lost this opportunity for a generation or more to curtail this right.

You represent your generation well. Nice gear!

This will throw the arfcom curmudgeons for a loop

I'm a millennial. Don't own any firearms but I support repealing the NFA, IRS, and ATF.

I do believe this is a dupe

ETA: http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1891929_NBC_News___Millennials_less_likey_to_support_gun_control.html

Im on the edge on whats considered a millennial,

That said, I know plenty of mellennials who are into guns and such.

I know a kid who started a holster business and is now running around with a nice set of sentinel NODs. Early 20s with a successful business doing what he loves.

Millennials are a funny group.  If they are not socialist, they tend to be libertarian.

True Story.

Early 20's millennial here. We love us some guns.



I don't know a single millennial who owns guns that doesn't own more than their parents ever did. Even the liberals I've met at college tend to like guns.

Exactly, and being in favor of more freedom is not a liberal value. Unfortunately, it's not a conservative value either.

I am an older Millennial, I love freedom. The only asshat I know that wants to have stricter gun laws is some beta ass dood that makes fun of his customers at the cell phone store.

It warms the cockles of my heart to see the gals on FB tear him a new ass every now and then.

We millennials have been trying to communicate that to this board for years now.  I blame the sweet video games we grew up with instilling us with a love for firearms.

Goldeneye.

Conservatives are not always about freedom.

Agreed.  There is a strong libertarian leaning in people my age (30). The younger millennials tend to have more socialists, but they'll learn.

Heh, I always blamed western movies.

Never considered growing up with video games to be a cause. I come from a non gun family. They still don't care about them

My dad hunted but rarely, and he really only owns hunting rifles and revolvers.  I shot with him some and I shot in the boy scouts some, but interest in firearms was mostly self motivated.  That interest engendered my understanding of the 2A's importance. That in particular is why I feel that the gun community should be more accepting to youth that show any interest in firearms at all, to include paint ballers, air softers, and video gamers.  That interest breeds like minded individuals.

Goldeneye, Rogue Squadron, and KOTOR were pretty much my entire childhood until high school.



 

Now we're talking.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

While they have a passing familiarity with some guns from games, it does make safety training all the more challenging.  

Universally, new shooters have poor trigger discipline, but I find millenials remarkable for their poor muzzle discipline as well.  

I blame video games.

I'm 24 and my wife is 25, I always wants more guns (and more NFA stuff now) and we both want more freedom and less Gov. (She might think I have enough guns already! Lol)



I have to admit video games helped get me excited about guns, my family is not active with shooting at all, only pulled the 10/22 out to shoot a skunk or something now and then.




 

Same applies to my circle of friends.

As a millennial I have always found the older generations chastising us as ridiculous.

I mean, for the most part, everyone I have met of my generation are more freedom based than most.

We have some socialists, probably the same as the Gen X and Boomer generations, but from my experience we have more Libertarian minded people than both combined.

I remember right when GTA Vice City came out my Godfather bought it for me. Being a huge fan of the 80's and Miami Vice, it was that much better to play.

I remember I stayed up until I beat the game.

Tl;dr


Luckily we have the MSM to tell us how they all support gun control

I think the biggest Beef boomers have with millennials is that we normally won't let a manager or business take advantage of us. If we don't like what's going on, we leave and find other work.

Hence why more millennials are not working on wall street but in tech companies.

I've dealt with tons of people handling guns while I was a salesman and found the average ranking to be gen x > millennials > baby boomers. If anything most millennials seem to do basic research online and come with a basic understanding of safety already in place, though they don't have the same level of caution and respect for firearms that the gen x crowd seems to have.





The only people that ever got close to accidentally killing me were all baby boomers.





 

Yup. I rarely meet a straight forward millenial but I meet a lot of feel the bern types and libertarian types

In the same sentence these lying f**kers say they don't want to take guns away then say they want to ban all semi-autos. Semi-autos make up about 60+ million firearms in the US.... if that's not taking guns away I don't know what is.

That and they associate hipsters with the whole generation, which in reality are just a very small subset.

Yup

 

Well said brother!

Very well!

so when it comes time to vote they are going to vote against the guy who wants to ban guns but is pro fsa.

not going to happen they may not be rabidly anit gun but they are at best indifferent.

I have seen the same thing among my friends and myself.  My dad owns an ar15 and a pistol, but is have about six time that number and counting.
Darn guns, they keep following me home

Of course. I mean, it is still a MSM article; notice how they very succinctly push that the majority of Americans are pro-gun control.



That said, the headline is true at face value.

Old people keep pushing more and more rules.

Young people don't like unreasonable rules.

Shocking.

Granted most of my friends are right-leaners or libertarians, but in general I don't think I know but one or two people my age that actively wants more gun laws. Most don't give a shit and are willing to try it out if they aren't into it already.

Age 22. Love guns.

I work two or three days in a high volume gun store. A normal day sees me sell about twenty guns.On high volume days a gun goes out the door every four  minutes. Demographics are -  old white guys, middle aged white guys, old couples, middle aged couples, middle aged females, young males, young couples, young females, single middle aged  black males, young black males, then elderly black either male or female. Being honest, based on the types of guns each buys I think it has more to do with economic class than age or anything else.

What suppressor/silencer cover is that?

I think that one pictures is actually a AAC M4-2000.

That gun now uses a Socom 556 Surefire can.

Silencer cover
http://www.griffonindustries.com/product_p/gi-suppressor-hmms-01.htm

I thank call of duty, and x-box for this.

I'm a millenial, and know many millenials. I don't know anyone that is anti gun.

But being in a small town helps that a lot.

There's no question gaming is driving this.  Think about that the next time you see a kid playing battlefield.  That's the future.  

and....brother Buck19Delta.....

You're absolutely right!  

Born in 1983 myself so I am right at the start of the Millennial Generation and I have to agree with what's been said.  FPS games (GoldenEye, CoD, Battlefield, Counterstrike, etc...) have had a huge impact on my generation's attitude towards firearms, especially the military style ones.  We want to own what we played with in game... still want that AUG A3 from BF3 myself.

In addition most of the older generations seem to confuse a lot of our libertarian values with approval for Democrat policies.  They are not the same for a large percentage of us.

Don't give up on Milennials yet.

As a Millennial myself I know only one really hardcore gun control advocate in my age group.

There's support for UBCs, which is still not awesome but it's a lot better than having people advocate for mag bans, AWBs and the like.
On the flip side there's also a lot of support for CCW and the use of firearms for self defense.

I'm a high school teacher and I take former students (who just graduated and are 18) shooting. Most have never shot before.

All have been minorities.

Since they live in rough areas now they feel empowered to protect their families.

I had a former female 5' Punjabi student ask me what gun to buy. I told her an AR15. She's stubbern and bought a SxS 12ga.

They are To busy playing Pokemon Go