It actually goes much deeper than this, and it's only going to get worse for us.
Republicans and many of us pro-gun folks in general sit in a very self-righteous mindset. We assume everyone that doesn't agree with us is an idiot, we insult them, we belittle them, and we either dismiss or ignore them. Since we feel so strongly we are right, and it's so black and white/obvious to us we are right, we sit back and figure everyone else will figure out we're right sooner or later. There's almost no large scale Republican efforts to get their message across, you have what the NRA, Fox news, and a few hunting shows basically no one watches except hunters. The only significant thing I've seen in the last couple decades to increase the gun ownership message to kids is getting Trap shooting into high schools as a scholastic program.
Democrats and anti-gun folks have played a much smarter long game. They've spent their time and resources the last 3+ decades buying the news outlets, buying the media, they control tv shows, influencers, movies and the messages they deliver. Their message is delivered to our kids with 87% of teachers being democrats K-12 and 90% in college. K-12 alone that's ~11,000 hours of direct access time those teachers have to influence children with their views. They do a much better job marketing their agenda to young folks with social media etc. in subtle ways. Call it unfair, brain washing, etc. they are "growing" more people that see things their way because they spent the $ to engrain their messages in subtle ways into everyone's daily lives, especially young children and young adults who are so easily manipulated by people they are taught to trust and look up to, teachers.
Maybe ya’ll are right, just send $20 a month of the money not stolen via armed robbery by LEO to some organization as that’s the way really make a difference. Speaking truth to change a manipulated mind does seem foolish after all.
