Younger Americans Less Worried About Political Violence and Free Speech Threats, AP-NORC Poll Finds

Tony DiGiovine, a 74-year-old retired electrical engineer and musician in Phoenix, says he remembers Kent State. He was around then. In 1970, the National Guard shot and killed unarmed students protesting the Vietnam War at that Ohio university. Today, he says, the Guard is not trained to patrol American streets, and neither are the armed forces. "Something's going to go wrong," he told pollsters. A Democrat, he belongs to the generation that a new AP-NORC poll finds most worried about political violence.

The poll arrives after a year of killings. In June, Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot to death in their home, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were wounded. The Justice Department described the attack as the shooter's calculated plan to inflict fear and violence on Minnesota elected officials and their families. In September, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot dead while addressing an audience on the campus of Utah Valley University, which authorities also called an act of political violence.

The survey, conducted Oct. 9-13 with 1,289 adults, found that 44% of Americans are extremely or very concerned about political violence aimed at conservative figures or organizations. For liberal figures and groups, the number is 41%. The sharpest divide is by age. About half of adults 60 and older are highly concerned about violence against either side, compared with about 3 in 10 adults under 30.

The generational pattern repeats on free speech. Among those 60 and older, about half are highly concerned about threats to conservatives' free speech, while only about a quarter of adults under 30 say so. The gap is smaller, but still substantial, for liberals. Yet there is no age divide on whether free speech faces a "major" threat: about half of all adults say it does. The finding suggests younger adults see the threat but are less personally worried about how it affects liberals or conservatives. Young people are also less likely to see the right to vote as under major threat: about 2 in 10 under 30, versus about 4 in 10 of those 60 and older.

Party matters as much as age. About 6 in 10 Republicans are highly concerned about violence against conservatives, but only 27% feel that way about violence against liberals. About 6 in 10 Democrats are highly concerned about violence against liberals, while 38% are about violence against conservatives. The effect is strongest at the ideological ends: conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats are much more likely than moderates in their coalitions to worry about their own side. About a quarter of independents are highly concerned about violence in either direction.

Partisan gaps also shape views of rights. About two-thirds of Democrats say freedom of speech and freedom of the press face a major threat. Among Republicans, about 3 in 10 say that of speech and about 2 in 10 of the press. Overall, about 4 in 10 Americans see a major threat to press freedom, and about 3 in 10 say so of the right to vote and the right to bear arms.

The respondents the poll quotes point in different directions. Ryan Striker, a 34-year-old music teacher in Manchester, New Hampshire, who is liberal, independent, and opposes President Trump, worries that political violence can snowball. Craig Tenhoff, 58, an independent in Simi Valley, California, is concerned that people are ceasing to talk and compromise and are vilifying opponents. Max Anderson, a 23-year-old liberal-leaning independent and college student in Fort Collins, Colorado, worries about violence from across the spectrum. He says many people his age aren't doing well, so more extreme avenues of action can suddenly feel like a better option.

Jeff Milligan, a 72-year-old Republican from Logan, Ohio, is more worried about violence against conservatives than liberals. He used to worry more about threats to fundamental rights. Asked what changed, he answered: "President Trump was elected." The poll's margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. Its results suggest concern over political violence will keep tracking both party and age.