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How mass shootings affect young voters

Episode Summary

For a generation raised on mass shootings as a regular part of American life, politics can either be a place to enact change — or something to completely ignore.

Episode Notes

This year’s midterm elections were expected to be a referendum on the economy, but as gun violence is on the minds of Americans, yet again, millennials and zillennials, who’ve grown up in an era of massacres, might prove a constituency that no politician can ignore. If they show up to the ballot box, that is.

Today, we talk about how gun violence affects the politics of young voters.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times 2021-22 Los Angeles Times Fellow Anumita Kaur

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Episode Transcription

Jonathan: I'm feeling a little nervous because seeing that we go on lockdown all the time for someone coming on campus with, like, guns and stuff. And you see it on the news, like, all the time, and it's like, “Oh, that could be me one day.” And… I… don't know, it could be like, I go to school or I go to the store and // I could be my last day.

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Maya: Personally, I can't say I feel like the government is doing anything because it seems like with different states, everyone has their own direction that they go in, // as far as Texas and, you know, even Georgia, like they have open carry, so, guns can be visible in stores and stuff like that. Like, there's only a few places that are off limits, which is kind of scary because you just want to walk somewhere and you //  imagine like, how many people have guns on them right now? // How safe am I in this place?

Aubrey: Coming from the south, I feel like guns are a pretty big part of our culture. So I understand that the hesitance for gun control will not be taken by everybody, but I also believe that people should be able to defend themselves with firearms, but I also think that people shouldn't have AR-15s to do that.

Kham: I'm independent, so I'm neither left or right and I personally believe that there should be some sort of gun control. When it comes to gun ban, though, I don't completely agree on that. But when it comes to politics, it kinda shocks me overall how // at 18, you're not able to drink,you're not able to rent a car, you're not able to go to the casino or anything like that, but you can easily buy an AR-15.

Alex: I am studying in public health and, of course, we talk about gun violence as a public health issue. We talk about a whole bunch of things that are public health issues. And I think having that gaze on the situation also makes me like, “Oh Lord, is anything ever going to change?” I think I saw something a while ago that was like, “How did the people ever pass, like the thing about cigarettes and not smoking inside or like around children and that type of thing?” Because it feels like nothing can pass in this day and age that is good for people.  

Saisha: As a student, I kind of feel like I don't really know how to, kind of, absorb all this information because it's like, well, I kind of grew up with these incidents happening. Like, when I was, you know, in grade school, these would happen and in middle school, we had, like, Stoneman Douglas happen and now we've had this Uvalde. And I, like, personally feel very vulnerable cause, like, it's always in the back of my mind, like, “What if this happens right now?” LIke I'll be taking a math test and it's, like, in the back of my mind, just this really intrusive thought will appear like, “What if this happens to me?” In the future, when I'm old enough will probably vote for politicians who support policies of // stricter gun laws because I don't think it's necessary to be able to purchase a war weapon in today's time.

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Anumita: I was 18, sitting on the floor of a dorm room on May 23, 2014 texting friends to find out if they were alive. A shooter was raging through Isla Vista, the mostly student community by UCSB, where I went to school. It was a Friday night and the girls' dorms were a blur of crop tops and lipstick bubbling with the anticipation of a good time … until the sirens.

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Anumita: until the sirens… Then the building fell silent and suddenly the dorms’ fluorescent lights felt stifling. Through the open door I could hear the resident advisor walking up and down the hall, telling us to stay, put, stay calm, stay, put, stay calm. It was like being in the eye of a storm. We were still, but calamities surrounded us. Six students were killed that night. The days after were filled with the familiar chorus of “never again,” but we all know that vow wasn't true.

Gustavo: That's my LA Times colleague Anumita Kaur...the other voices of young voters in the order you heard them: Jonathan Brown(16), Maya Conyers, Kham Piang, Alexandra Simpson, and Saisha Agarwal (16).

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Gustavo: Columbine, Sandy Hook, Tree of Life synagogue, Orlando, Las Vegas, El Paso. Those are just some of the worst mass shootings who happened in U.S. history. And last month we added Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas to this list of horrors, a list that's probably going to continue to grow, but as politicians fight about what, if anything, to do, young voters are tired of it and ready to take action.

Gustavo: I'm Gustavo Arellano, you're listening to “The Times,” daily news from the LA Times. It's Thursday, June 9, 2022. 

This year's midterm elections were expected to be a referendum on the economy, but as gun violence is on the minds of Americans yet again, millennials and Zillennials, who've grown up in an era of massacres, might prove a constituency that no politician can ignore. If they show up to the ballot box, that is.

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Gustavo: Anumita Kaur is a member of the 2021-2022 Los Angeles Times fellowship class and she's based out of Washington, DC. Anumita, welcome to “The Times.”

Anumita: Thanks for having me.

Gustavo: So all of these mass shootings we've mentioned have happened over the past generation. And few things have changed politically on the national level, but in the wake of Uvalde and Buffalo, what's been the response from Capitol Hill?

Anumita: Just the week before last, a domestic terrorism bill that would have opened debate on questions regarding gun safety and crimes failed in the Senate. This was Democrat's first attempt at responding to the back-to-back mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. The final vote was 47 to 47, so quite short of the 60 needed to take up the bill. All Republicans voted against it, but since then Biden has come out in a speech calling for a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines. And short of that, he was asking for background checks. He was asking for storage laws or red flag laws. A stronger response, really.

Biden: I know how hard it is, but I'll never give up. And if Congress fails, I believe this time a majority of American people won't give up either. I believe the majority of you will act to turn your outrage into making this issue central to your vote. Enough, enough, enough.

Gustavo: And Biden has also been coming out with stats. Like one that really disturbed me, he tweeted that more school-age children have died from guns than on-duty police officers and active duty military combined in the past couple of years.

Anumita: Right, and the response of local law enforcement is also under scrutiny right now. So, the Justice Department has announced it would conduct an independent review of the local law enforcement response in Uvalde. // The review follows revelations that officers waited for about an hour to storm the classrooms where the gunman had barricaded himself, despite the fact that children inside were calling 911 begging for help.

AP(robb student): We just hear all kinds of gunshots going off, like nonstop, like constantly gunshots and then we’re over here all scared on the ground fearing for our lives.

Gustavo: So what might the outrage over those shootings, from both Buffalo and Uvalde, mean for young voter turnout, especially if Congress or the Senate has no big gun control legislation right before the midterms start coming up?

Anumita: According to an expert we spoke to, congressional inaction, in particular, can really frustrate and depress voter turnout. // But at the same time, it's a prime example as to why politics matter.

Gustavo: Wait… So the guy that you talked to said that congressional inaction just leads to voter apathy?

Anumita: Often it does. 

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Anumita: You see a lot of young folks get extremely frustrated with really what can be viewed as a cycle of inaction, right? Tragedy occurs, nothing happens. Tragedy occurs, nothing happens. And so it can depress voter turnout, but not always.

Gustavo: And we'll talk about that after the break.

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Maya: So it kind of makes you wonder how much of an impact you really have when it comes to these kinds of things. Because I feel like people have been arguing about these kinds of things for many, many, many years. Like, this is not the first mass shooting we’ve had. 

Aubrey: They won't do anything specifically to change the laws, kind of like in the early COVID days where a lot of the senators didn't really take it serious, they didn't put in mandates for a mask until they were catching it themselves and then all of a sudden they wanted to get strict on how they regulated COVID. So, I think when it personally hits one of them, that's when they'll take a serious action. 

Girl: Politically, it kind of makes me look at who's doing what at this point and who is actually actively trying to maybe pass regulations or laws to prevent gun violence. And also that makes me think of like, in the future, like, oh, what's going to happen in a few years when it's time to , like, vote these people in and out, because what is going to happen? 

Kham: Uh, I think we're coming up to the high 200s of mass shootings in our country. And I think this is a topic that's really crucial and important to discuss at all times. And we need to start making progress towards //  resolving it rather than it being that Twilight zone of just talking about it, but no actions are ever done.

Gustavo: And those are more voices of young voters collected by Times producer Ashlea Brown..

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Gustavo: So…. Anumita…  there's precedent for young voters to come out after a massacre involving guns and influence gun legislation. The most notable recent example was in Florida in 2018 in the wake of the Parkland massacre. What happened there?

Anumita: There was a horrific tragedy. There was a shooting at Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida in 2018, as you mentioned. And it was after that, that we saw a lot of young voters mobilize. 

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Anumita:  And they demanded action from state officials and local officials, including the survivors from the shooting. And so that is a great example of young people feeling energized to come out and impact change.

X Gonzalez(AP): We want to have conversations with President Donald Trump, Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Rick Scott about the fact that they are being supported by the NRA and we want to give them the opportunity to be on the right side of this.

Gustavo: That was Parkland shooting survivor X Gonzalez and they were very vocal during that time, along with a lot of their classmates. 

Anumita: Yeah… Within weeks of the shooting, Florida legislators enacted new gun restrictions. Young people also pushed for nationwide reform and their protests and demands for reform were what our expert called “a key driver for the historic youth turnout in 2018.”

X Gonzalez(AP): Not because we're going to be another statistic about mass shootings in America, but because, we are going to be the last mass shooting!

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Gustavo: Dode Moomen  is another prominent activist and organizer who sits on the Board of directors for March for Our Lives, a nonprofit that Many of those survivors from Parkland started. Just last month they placed over a thousand body bags on the national mall. 

Daud Mumin (AP): These body bags are 1100 body bags, spelling out “thoughts and prayers” because that's what they have been doing for four years. Sharing thoughts and sharing prayers. And that's what it gets us, more body bags and more deaths. We want to remind American politicians and U.S. Congress that we demand substantive and transformational action on gun violence, right? Passing universal background checks, providing a comprehensive plan. How are we going to combat gun violence?

Gustavo: And March for our lives is also planning a big protest next week in DC on June 11. 

David Hogg(twitter): We have over 450 marches planned around the country and the world. And contact your government and tell them to advise travelers to our country that they are not safe. Your kids are not safe here if they come to the United States, and we need to make our government embarrassed internationally, that this is a problem.

Gustavo: That's David Hogg and he's been tweeting and giving interviews recently about how he and other survivors think now, this time, that there's actually going to be large-scale change with gun control. Anumita, do you get that same feeling from your peers?

Anumita: Of course young people aren't a monolith, right? You're always going to find a variety of opinions. However, by and large, and with the experts that we spoke to, young voters often feel that each shooting goes through a very typical cycle.

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Anumita: A tragedy occurs, Democrats and gun control advocates demand legislation to regulate the use and sale of guns. Republicans, the National Rifle Association, and generally gun enthusiasts, will offer thoughts and prayers and seek to put the focus of the issue on mental health and not firearms. Congress ultimately ends up doing nothing because there's often a stalemate in regards to legislation. And then, //  everyone moves on and then another shooting occurs, rinse and repeat. So there is some sense of hopelessness among youth on the issue.

Gustavo: I wonder if in this case with Uvalde, since the victims were all fourth graders, not necessarily so prominent online, that maybe there would have been more anger, if it was another Parkland. Cause in Parkland, they're all high schoolers, they're all plugged into social media. They knew how to interact with this // media age of ours.

Anumita: It's hard to say. Similarly, when Sandy Hook occurred, right? There was a lot of outrage, but, of course, Sandy Hook, it was elementary aged students. // That didn't lead to any sort of action, legislatively speaking.

Gustavo: More after the break.

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Gustavo: Anumita, so there might be some political movement when it comes to gun control. Even Republicans are talking about some stuff, not this time, not nothing. But what do surveys say about how young people feel about gun laws in general? Like, as a motivational factor for them to want to go to the ballot box in the first place?

Anumita: The experts that we spoke to definitely mentioned that these sorts of incidents, this trend does push more young people to side or identify with the Democratic Party because that is the party that is seen as at least attempting to make some efforts on gun control, gun safety. // In addition, there are, specifically in California, some data points that show these types of laws do reduce firearm deaths. So, California, according to the statistics from the CDC, has a much lower rate of firearms deaths compared to states with more lax controls, such as Texas and Louisiana. But it's important, I think, to keep in mind that this is all within the backdrop of the fact that firearms were the leading cause of death among young people in the U.S. in 2020, even overtaking car accidents to become the primary cause of death for Americans aged one through 19. 

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Anumita: In addition to that, active shooter drills are announced standard in 95% of U.S. public schools, which really signals to youth, to young people that, similar to earthquakes or tornadoes, mass shooting events are inevitable. And again, it reinforces this cycle for young people that this has become the norm and politicians have no real tangible plans to do anything about it.

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Gustavo: I can't even imagine being a young person, whether a teen, a young adult, a kid, and growing up in that environment, but Anumita, you not only have grown up in that, you're a survivor of a mass shooting incident, as you mentioned earlier in Santa Barbara. How does living in this impact your peers politically, especially when you do see politicians talk a big talk and then, nothing really happens when it comes to gun control, at least nationwide?

Anumita: Yeah, I think the impact is undeniable. So many of us have either watched constantly through the years, tragedy after tragedy. Many of us have now also, as you mentioned, lived through some of these, including myself, and I think that the impact is massive. I think it has shifted the way that we think about voting and government. It's shifted again, as experts have said, faith and trust // in Washington leaders to enact change, to do something about it. And again, while it's led some younger voters to more closely identify with the Democratic Party, they still remain frustrated that Congress has done little to address it.

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Aubrey: I feel like my vote is just going to go through one ear and out the other. 

Alex: You’ve got to look into who you want to vote for and actually care about what's going on and also read their policies, what they want to do, what they are doing and go from there. And just encouraging my friends to do the same, because I know we all do get wrapped up in, like, a little bit of hopelessness when it comes to our government. And I just don't want us to get stuck in that cycle. 

Kham: I do feel the need to inform my community, inform others and overall just make sure the right person is elected so that real changes can occur. And our kids, our parents, us, you know, overall, we can all live a safe life in general, in the U.S. 

Maya: I'd like to grow as being more intentional with my research when I'm voting. But as a young girl, like I said, it just makes you wonder how impactful your vote is, because it just seems like a lot of corrupt things going on and that our politicians who are currently // representing us don't have the best intentions for making this a safer place to live.

Jonathan:  I do not think they are moving fast enough because it's been more and more and more shootings and people at my school don't really take it heavy. They'd be making jokes about it. And I feel like it's not something to joke about and it's not really funny. It feels really scary cause, like, you don't know if your parents are going to be the ones get the call that their child didn't make it.

Saisha: I think that these laws should be re-evaluated in the future. And I would love to see the place where future generations, cause I don't think it's going to happen by the time I graduate high school, but I hope to see an educational environment where kids can just go to learn and they don't have to have intrusive thoughts and the idea of someone coming inside the school, their own classmates, you know, shooting them. 

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Gustavo: It's like an oscillation kind of like this country, either people get super politically motivated to push for gun control or they just say, “Nothing's going to happen, so why even bother?”

Anumita: Absolutely and I think for me, after having experienced what I experienced, it just leads to a large amount of… honestly rage, when it comes up again and again and again, and nothing has been done.

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Gustavo: Anumita, thank you so much for this conversation.

Anumita: Thank you for having me.

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Gustavo: And that's it for this episode of “The Times,” daily news from the LA Times. 

Ashlea Brown was jefa on this episode and our show is produced by Shannon Lin, Denise Guerra, Kasia Broussalian, Ashlea Brown, David Toledo, Angel Carreras and Surya Hendry. 

Our engineers are Mario Diaz, Mike Heflin, Mark Nieto. Our editor is Kinsee Morlan.

Our executive producers are Jazmin Aguilera and Shani Hilton. And our theme music is by Andrew Eappen. Like what you're listening to? Then make sure to follow “The Times” on whatever platform you use. I'm Gustavo Arellano. We'll be back tomorrow with all the news and desmadre, gracias.

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