![]() Not only are a significant share of Republicans voicing support for liberal-aligned gun laws, but politicians are increasingly confronted with a cohort of young people whose lives have been marked by campus gun attacks and schoolhouse shooter drills. “But the difference is not so big, and the share of young Republicans is small enough as a share of overall Republicans that I would not expect there to be a shift in the center of gravity on guns driven by younger Republican voters.”ĭespite the headwinds in Texas, young conservative attitudes seem to be evolving nationwide in a way that some Democrats and gun safety advocates see as an opening for new policies. “You can find evidence that younger Republicans appear less strongly in favor of gun rights instead of public safety considerations,” Henson said in an interview. Other political concerns are competing for attention and Texas conservatives overall tend to blame a wide range of factors for mass shootings - but not guns. Low voter turnout in the state helps create competitive GOP primaries that invite challengers eager to exploit any backlash to liberal-backed gun safety policy. Yet Texas legislators have considered an array of gun restrictions with little progress. Republicans under the age of 45 tended to support those measures at higher rates than older party supporters, Texas Politics Project Director James Henson said after examining the poll’s underlying response data at POLITICO’s request. Plus, recent polling from ruby-red Texas underscores the complexity of the GOP’s internal split.Ī University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll last month found 64 percent of all Texas Republicans supported raising the age limit on gun purchases and the concept of “red flag” laws that require people determined to be a risk to themselves or others to surrender their firearms. But access to firearms has been a bedrock principle for the GOP for decades, and polls show older Republican primary voters remain some of the strongest firearm supporters in the country. Concern about mass shootings tends to spike in the aftermath of attention-grabbing attacks before fading. “You still have a lot of elected officials and Republicans within the party who don’t believe we should have government interference when it comes to owning guns.”Ī partisan divide and age gap on gun restrictions remains deeply embedded in American politics. “But at the same time, I really don’t know when and where that conversation within the party will happen,” Hernandez said in an interview. “There are some concerns from Gen Z voters specifically, mainly because they’ve had to deal with it more growing up - it’s become more rampant in society,” Joacim Hernandez, the elected chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation, said of gun violence.
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