Anxious About Social Violence: The Emotional Underpinnings of Support for Gun Control

Filindra, Alexandra; Collingwood, Loren; Kaplan, Noah

doi:10.1111/ssqu.12857

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…A review of the public opinion on gun control literature yields at least three conclusions. First, in nearly every study on the issue, gun ownership is a predictor of gun control attitudes; specifically, gun owners are more likely than non‐owners to oppose gun control (Burton et al, 2020; Filindra, Collingwood, and Kaplan, 2020; Filindra and Kaplan, 2016, 2017; Kleck, Gertz, and Bratton, 2009; Wozniak, 2017). The logic underlying this finding is that those with reasons for owning a gun (e.g., for self‐defense and hunting) and self‐interest in maintaining their ownership status will oppose policies that threaten their ability to do so.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gun Owners and Gun Control: Shared Status, Divergent Opinions

Burton

Logan²,

Pickett

et al. 2021

Sociological Inquiry

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After each mass public shooting, an inevitable debate surrounding the tools used to carry out the attack ensues. This debate is marked by two sides: those who endorse controlling access to firearms and those who oppose restrictions to the Second Amendment. Implicit in this dialogue is the assumption that gun owners are a homogenous group who stand in opposition to the gun control legislation. Using a national sample of American gun‐owning adults, we examine gun control attitudes among those who share the gun owner‐status and uncover divergent views split down political lines. Political partisanship and values are a major source of gun owners’ policy preferences. Republican gun owners and those with rightward political values are more likely to oppose gun control measures. Gun control, it seems, is politicized even among those who own guns, which suggests guns are political symbols with a meaning that extends beyond mere self‐interest in protecting ownership status.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gun Owners and Gun Control: Shared Status, Divergent Opinions

Burton

Logan²,

Pickett

et al. 2021

Sociological Inquiry

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“…Mark R. Joslyn and Donald P. Haider-Markel (2017) demonstrate that individuals who feel more anxious about mass shootings are more likely to support gun regulation measures. Alexandra Filindra, Loren Collingwood, and Noah J. Kaplan (2020) experimentally show that anxiety related to mass shootings and mass violence increases support for gun regulation. In addition, Mark R. Joslyn and Donald P. Haider-Markel (2017) found that respondents who were anxious about the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting were more likely to support gun regulations.…”

Section: Threat and Attitudes Toward Gunsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Gun Ownership, Threat, and Gun Attitudes in an Experiment

Vegter

Haider‐Markel

2022

Sociological Perspectives

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Researchers have considered the role of perceived threat and fear of crime in shaping attitudes about gun regulation. We contribute to this literature by examining whether gun owners, who tend to oppose gun regulations, moderate their gun views when exposed to a gun-related threat. We argue that although exposure to threat can increase the desire to be armed, gun owners primed with a threat may soften their views on gun regulation relative to non-gun owners. We employ an experiment embedded within a nationally representative survey to test our hypotheses. Our analysis of the data from our survey supports the notion that gun owners generally oppose gun regulations, but exposure to a gun-related threat moderates their opposition to gun regulations. We discuss the limitations of our study and conclude with a discussion of the implications of these results for understanding public support for gun regulation in America.

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“…Gun ownership is also consistently predictive of gun attitudes and a greater likelihood of adopting elements of US gun culture, which has been perpetuated by the NRA (Lacombe et al 2019). Other work finds that contextual effects also matter in determining individual-level gun attitudes, including living in an area that experienced a mass shooting (Barney & Schaffner 2019, Newman & Hartman 2019, which likely work via increased anxiety among local residents (Filindra et al 2020). Some work suggests that contextual and individual-level factors interact to impact gun attitudes; for instance, local levels of gun crime relate to gun policy among political Independents in the mass public, but not among Republicans or Democrats (Pearson-Merkowitz & Dyck 2017).…”

Section: Americans' Gun Policy Preferences and Rural Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Rural identity and gun policy preferences in the United States

Thompson¹,

Trujillo²

2023

Preprint

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In the wake of an increasing number of mass shootings and gun-related incidents in the US, public discourse on gun control has intensified, leading to a polarized political environment where consensus on policy reform remains elusive. In this paper, we argue that an overlooked factor influencing Americans' firearm policy preferences is rural identity - or an individual's psychological attachment to a rural area. We test these expectations using data from the 2020 ANES and original survey data from an opt-in panel. Overall, we find that rural identity is associated with favorable estimations of the National Rifle Association (NRA) - an influential organization that mobilizes public opinion on firearms. Rural identifiers are also somewhat less supportive of a range of policy measures that would tighten the regulation of firearms. However, we find that the magnitude of the effects of rural identity on attitudes towards guns to be surprisingly small. Crucially, we find that rural identifers exhibit net-levels of support for background checks, a ban semi-automatic rifles, and a federal program to buy back "assault style rifles," suggesting that public officials' inaction on the regulation of firearms is out of step with the preferences of rural electorates. Our findings also have implications for what it means to hold a rural identity beyond a generalized animosity towards urban areas, and for understanding place-based differences in political attitudes - including those on guns.

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Anxious About Social Violence: The Emotional Underpinnings of Support for Gun Control

Cited by 12 publications

References 32 publications

Gun Owners and Gun Control: Shared Status, Divergent Opinions

Gun Owners and Gun Control: Shared Status, Divergent Opinions

Gun Ownership, Threat, and Gun Attitudes in an Experiment

Rural identity and gun policy preferences in the United States

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