“Across six of the seven largest counties,” the article stated, “there were 4,500 fewer registrations among 16- to 25-year-olds compared to the same point in 2014. But that narrative also took a hit with Tampa Bay Times report on Wednesday, which indicated that all the drama is not translating into increased voter registration among teenagers and young adults. Negative views of the NRA also fell 8 points between March 6 and April 11, while positive views increased by a point, according to Quinnipiac polling.Ī major theme of the post-Parkland activism has been that the youth vote will finally sway national politics in favor of gun control. Opposition to stricter laws had also risen 8 points, to 39%. Less than a month later, during Quinnipiac polling conducted during April 6-9, the percentage of overall respondents supporting stricter gun laws had fallen 10 points, to 56%. 16-19, 66% of respondents supported stricter gun laws in the U.S., a record high for the Quinnipiac poll, with 31% in opposition to stricter laws. In a national poll conducted by Quinnipiac University during Feb. “he fact that mentions of guns dropped among both Republicans and Democrats, and at nearly equal measures, could pose challenges for the continued viability of this topic as a national issue,” the analysis concluded. The polling was conducted during April 2-11.Īs Gallup noted in its analysis, changes in public opinion on firearms after high profile firearm-related crimes “have tended to be temporary.” And while the analysts were unwilling to rule out the possibility that Parkland could represent a “turning point in the gun debate,” they had words of caution for those who insist it already has been. The drop was roughly equal among both Republicans and Democrats. , however, Gallup said that percentage had fallen by over half, to 6%. 14, followed by a coordinated school walkout on March 14 and coordinated protest marches on March 24). You're either funding the killers or you are standing with the children.Īnother immediately chimed in after that comment, characterizing the NRA as “child murderers.”Īmericans, generous and compassionate as they are, let the rage play on for some time.īut now signs are increasingly pointing toward the conclusion that America remains a pro-gun nation and that the intensity of the Parkland activism may not be matched by lasting shifts in opinion.Īccording to polling by Gallup, concern about guns or gun control surged in March, with a record 13% of Americans citing it as the nation’s most important problem (the Parkland murders occurred on Feb. And that is - that's - there's no other way to put it at this point. They are against the people who are dying. If they accept this blood money, they are against the children. Speaking of politicians who “take money from the NRA,” one told an interviewer on CNN: The real “difference,” however, may well have been the ability of social media and 24/7 “news” broadcasts to pervasively promote and amplify a narrative so insistently that it seemed futile – if not dangerous – to offer any counterpoint.Īntigun student activists who emerged from Parkland characterized anyone who opposed or refused their demands in the most condemning of terms. Obama put it, “This time, something different is happening.” Yet the post-Parkland media and activist blitz still managed to dubiously distinguish itself for its intensity, its hyperbole, its vitriol, its shrillness, and perhaps for its overreach.Īmerica’s former gun-grabber in chief, Barack Obama, even weighed in from retirement on what he characterized as “our children … calling us to account.” Anti-gunners tried to project an air of inevitability and of sea change. There is nothing more predictable than the tendency of gun control advocates to exploit tragedy. Like the long-delayed coming of spring to the Mid-Atlantic, evidence is appearing that Americans are regaining their senses and reverting to an instinctual embrace of freedom after a withering barrage of some the nastiest and most ugly anti-gun campaigning in memory.
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