Millennial Voters Offer Greatest Opposition to ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban

Senate Democrats are pushing an “assault weapons” ban again and the greatest opposition to it comes from voters aged 18 to 34.

In other words, many of those opposed to it were not old enough to vote during the push for such a ban following the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack. And some of them were still toddlers in 2004, which is when the last federal “assault weapons” ban expired.

The Guardian points to a Quinnipiac poll that shows support for an “assault weapons” ban surged among voters among voters over the age of 65 following the Texas church attack. Seventy-seven percent of such voters supported a ban and there was 70 percent support by voters 50 and older.

However, less than 50 percent of the millennial voters support such a ban and 44 percent of voters aged 18 to 34 actually oppose the idea. The Guardian reports that “experts” believe the millennial opposition to an “assault weapons” ban could be “driven by the popularity of first-person shooter video games…and the increasing prominence of military-style guns in the consumer market.”

They quote Wake Forest University sociologist David Yamane, who addressed millennials attraction to AR-15s and similar rifles by saying, “There does seem to be something in particular about assault weapons, and it could be due to the normality of assault weapons for people who have come of age playing first-person shooter games like Call of Duty.”

The Guardian contrasts America’s love of guns with the Australian example, where the government “chose to buy back and melt down at least 600,000 semi-automatic rifles and other long guns in the wake of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com