THE PRESS IS TRYING TO INDUCE PREFERENCE FALSIFICATION: News Outlets Ignore Millennials’ Skepticism of Gun Control; Youth opinion on firearms is far from monolithic.

Mainstream and left-leaning media outlets have been happy to present the post-Parkland clamor for more gun restrictions as a “youth-led” uprising against their pro-gun elders. “Pit a youth movement for firearms regulation against an aging gun lobby—the kids will ultimately win,” declares a headline in today’s Los Angeles Times. “Adults marvel at youth-led gun control movement,” says The Boston Globe. “Boston teens say it’s about time.”

CNN ran an article detailing how student activists “led” the Washington, D.C., March for Our Lives rally on Saturday, downplaying the heavy organizational support they received from adult gun control advocates. Recent survey data show that only 10 percent of rally attendees were under 18 and the average age of the adults present was 49. And while most of the press coverage has implied that young people are overwhelmingly in favor of more gun control, comments from actual young people suggest their views are not quite so monolithic. . . .

A 2015 Pew poll* found that only 49 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds favored an “assault weapons” ban, compared to 55 percent of those aged 30 to 49 and 63 percent of those 65 or older. A March 6 Quinnipiac poll, taken several weeks after the Parkland shooting, found that only 46 percent of 18-to-34 year olds support an assault weapons ban, rising to 51 percent for those aged 35 to 49, 68 percent for those aged 50-to-64, and 80 percent for those over 65.

As always, the press is pushing a political narrative, and is unconcerned with whether that narrative is correct, so long as it is politically useful.