Only 21% of Tellwut Panel Members Optimistic About Future of Gun Control Laws

On March 24th 2018 March for our Lives took place in Washington D.C. with 845 sister rallies occurring across the US and around the world. The main goals of those participating in the march were to end gun violence and to have tighter gun control laws.   The march was the largest student protest in American history, and was brought on by the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Highschool which some media outlets as the tipping point for gun control legislation. Activists began planning the march at the end of February 2018, when we asked the Tellwut panel if they were aware of the existence of March for our Lives, 70% of respondents said they were aware of the event. For the other 30% in the dark, some may have missed the point completely, with one voter member commenting in an off topic manner, “here have been over 50 million children murdered by the unholy practice of abortions since "Roe vs Wade". Where is the outcry there? At least 50,000,000!” (These statistics are unconfirmed)   Only 14% of respondents knew someone who participated in the march and less than 10% chose to participate. One Tellwut member who wanted to attend said, “I needed to work but would have been there. No one needs assault weapons! If you hunt with them, you have no meat to bring home. Common sense laws should be in place.”   Another nostalgic Tellwut panel member Milano2 said, “I am proud of the youth taking a stand. Reminds me of the protest demonstrations against the war long ago (minus the fights/arrests during many of those demonstrations). Nice to know these kids aren't just sitting around oblivious to the world around them. NO ONE is trying to take away guns. They just want what the NRA used to support 25-30 years ago. I don't understand why people are against better background checks, ban bump stocks, raise the legal age to buy guns and ban assault rifles. These are reasonable things to get done and NO ONE WANTS TO TAKE AWAY GUNS! “   21% of respondents are optimistic that gun laws will change as a result of the march and 39% were undecided on whether these events will have any lingering impact on the gun laws of tomorrow. One panel member pessimistically said, “Americans are gun crazy, don't think that will ever change.”