Young adults fear mass shootings but are divided along gender and party lines when it comes to gun control, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study.
Contrary to common assumptions that mass violence might help unite a young and influential voting bloc in favor of stricter gun violence, the study shows that the political and gender divide over gun control is deepening.
“This is a generation of people who live with significant fear and anxiety over mass violence,” said senior author Jillian Turanovic, associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder. “But we found that those shared fears do not unite them in attitudes on gun policy. In fact, they polarize them.”
Post-Columbine era
The study focused on young people who grew up in a post-Columbine, post-9/11 dominated by mass-shooting news, social media coverage and lockdown drills.
Previous national polls have suggested that this age cohort is more liberal in general and have more favorable toward gun restrictions than older generations. Turanovic and her colleagues wanted to know how fear of mass violence influences sentiments about firearms among different groups.
In general, young adults share anxiety about mass shootings and have a slight preference for gun control. The study finds that more than 60 percent of young adults ages 18 to 29 worry that a mass shooting will impact their lives in some way. About 17 percent worry “a lot.” But the study finds among those who report the highest levels of fear, positions on gun control fracture along political and gender lines.
For young Democrats and women, the higher their fear of mass shootings, the greater their support for stricter gun control. But as young men reported higher fear levels, they became more likely to support expanded access to firearms. Similarly, among those identifying as Republican or politically conservative, more fear correlated with a stronger desire for gun deregulation — the belief that personal firearm ownership is the necessary response to rising violence.
Viewpoints on gun control
Participants ranked, on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 3 (a lot), how much they feared being a victim of a mass shooting at a public event, a mall, store, school, bar, or nightclub. Researchers also asked them about gun policy views.
- 58 percent said owning a gun does not make you safer
- 42 percent said owning a gun does make you safer
- 32 percent said they believe that guns should be permitted on college campuses
- 32 percent indicated that a permit should not be required to carry a gun in public
- 42 percent said gun control laws are unconstitutional
The findings have political significance
Research shows that by 2032, Millennials and Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) will comprise almost half of the electorate.
Mass shootings are extremely rare, making up only about 1 percent of all gun deaths each year. But they have dominated public discourse around policy because of intense media coverage and the common assumption that shared public spaces are safe.
“If fear of mass shootings continues to run high and these events continue to happen, it doesn't look like we're going to reach that consensus anytime soon,” Turanovic noted.
She said she hopes the data in her study on fear itself will serve as a wake-up call to policymakers, encouraging them to invest more in mental health support for this generation.
“Generational change alone will not resolve America’s gun policy debates,” she said.
The research, conducted by scholars at the University of Colorado Boulder, Clemson University, and Florida State University and published in the journal Social Science Quarterly.
