A Tuesday piece in the Washington Times detailed why there may be hope yet for the Second Amendment, and why the gun prohibition lobby just might not have as clear a horizon as it might like.
Millennials, according to the newspaper, are not the mind-numbingly stupid or geek class as they might be portrayed in sitcoms. As author Jesse Winton puts it:
“In spite of the prevailing attitude toward millennials in the media, where it seems we are often portrayed as somewhat unmotivated and unwilling to engage on important issues, millennials are incredibly passionate, motivated, empirically minded and data-driven. And when it comes to gun control, we have a mountain of evidence over the last half-century to show that government efforts to restrict gun ownership are utterly ineffective at achieving their stated claims: a safer society through the reduction of violent crime.”
By no small coincidence, one of the panel topics during this weekend’s 31st annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in Tampa will be “Using New Media to Advance Gun Rights.” It focuses on bloggers, internet streaming; stuff nobody heard of a generation ago, but this new technology and internet commentary have become cornerstones of communication for this new generation.
As Winton noted, millennials are not living in bubbles or vacuums. They pay attention, just not the same way their parents did. Evidently, one thing to which they are paying attention is their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
The Washington Times piece says millennials aren’t pushovers for anti-gun fanaticism. This may not come as very good news to Hillary Rodham Clinton and her minions only six weeks before the November election. She’s made gun control a cornerstone of her White House campaign. But as Winton observed:
“The current poster child for gun control’s failure is Chicago, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. Yet despite the city’s onerous legal regime when it comes to guns, according to the Chicago Tribune, the Windy City experienced 2,988 shootings within its borders in 2015. And 2016 is looking much worse; Chicago has already exceeded that number so far this year — and has 500 gun-related murders to boot — with more than three months still to go.”
The deep pockets gun prohibition lobby, which is pushing gun control initiatives in Maine, Nevada and Washington with funding support from billionaire elitists including Michael Bloomberg, just might have to accept the fact that the message they’ve been selling is one that many millennials aren’t buying. At least, that seems to be what the Washington Times piece suggests.
This new generation has produced a considerable number of new shooters. Many of them are women. They’re apparently not about to be cajoled or coaxed into giving up a fundamental civil right. They just might not vote for anyone who wants or expects them to.
