This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Nearly 50 million Americans ages 18 to 29 are eligible to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, and about 60% say they plan to. If they follow through, it would break midterm turnout records for voters under 30.
Gun control is an issue these young voters care about more than the public at large does, and it's easy to understand why: In their lifetime, mass shootings have been a recurring part of American life. Directly experiencing a mass shooting is rare, yet some young people have survived two before turning 25. When a gunman opened fire at Brown University in December 2025, at least two students on campus had already experienced a school shooting before they got to college.
The same thing happened in April 2025, when students who lived through the 2018 Parkland, Florida, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School found themselves caught in another shooting at Florida State University. As one of them put it: "This is America." Researchers have called today's young adults the "massacre generation." They're the first group to grow up entirely in the post-9/11, post-Columbine High School shooting era, with routine lockdown drills, heightened security in schools and nonstop media coverage of mass violence. As criminologists who study the impacts of victimization and gun violence among young people, we wanted to know how growing up with the threat of mass shootings has shaped young adults' views on gun legislation.
In a recent study, we surveyed nearly 1,700 young adults, ages 18 to 29, across the country to find out. We found that fear of mass shootings pulls this generation apart along political and gender lines: It pushes some toward wanting stricter gun laws and others in the opposite direction. Mass shootings account for about 1% of gun deaths in the U.S.
Still, they profoundly shape how safe millions of Americans feel. In a 2019 survey by the American Psychological Association, nearly 80% of Americans said the possibility of a mass shooting stressed them out, and a third said they avoided certain places because of it. The fear has become so common that clinicians now have screening tools to assess and treat people with anxiety over mass violence.
Young adults have also grown up watching the same heated gun debates play out after every tragedy. Gun control advocates call for stricter firearm restrictions to prevent the next mass shooting, whereas gun rights advocates push back with the "good guy with a gun" argument, a phrase made popular by the National Rifle Association. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. d research that matter—daily or weekly.
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