Public Opinion and the Bases of Support for Gun Control

Point Blank ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 359-384
Author(s):  
Gary Kleck
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Gun Control

Public Support for Policies to Reduce School Shootings: A Moral-Altruistic Model

2020 ◽  
pp. 002242782095320
Author(s):  
Alexander L. Burton ◽  
Justin T. Pickett ◽  
Cheryl Lero Jonson ◽  
Francis T. Cullen ◽  
Velmer S. Burton
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
School Safety ◽  
Public Support ◽  
School Shootings ◽  
Mass Murder ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
School Crime ◽  
Moral Intuitions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Altruistic Fear

Objectives: The recurring mass murder of students in schools has sparked an intense debate about how best to increase school safety. Because public opinion weighs heavily in this debate, we examine public views on how best to prevent school shootings. We theorize that three moral-altruistic factors are likely to be broadly relevant to public opinion on school safety policies: moral intuitions about harm, anger about school crime, and altruistic fear. Methods: We commissioned YouGov to survey 1,100 Americans to explore support for a range of gun control and school programming policies and willingness to pay for school target hardening. We test the ability of a moral-altruistic model to explain public opinion, while controlling for the major predictors of gun control attitudes found in the social sciences. Results: The public strongly supports policies that restrict who can access guns, expand school anti-bullying and counseling programs, and target-harden schools. While many factors influence attitudes toward gun-related policies specifically, moral-altruistic factors significantly increase support for all three types of school safety policies. Conclusions: The public favors a comprehensive policy response and is willing to pay for it. Support for prevention efforts reflects moral intuitions about harm, anger about school crime, and altruistic fear.

Public Opinion, Political Parties, and Guns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Cook ◽  
Kristin A. Goss
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Gun Laws

Do Americans Want Stricter Gun Laws? Public opinion experts have long observed that the United States has a gun control paradox: Most Americans favor all sorts of firearms regulations—sometimes overwhelmingly so—yet these regulations are not enacted into law. Four decades ago, one scholar noted...

Critical Events and Attitude Change: Support for Gun Control After Mass Shootings

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (04) ◽  
pp. 903-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon C. Rogowski ◽  
Patrick D. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Attitude Change ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Critical Events ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Sandy Hook Elementary School ◽  
Sandy Hook

When and to what extent do crises and significant events induce changes in political attitudes? Theories of public opinion and policymaking predict that major events restructure public opinion and pry open new political opportunities. We examine the effect of major events on support for public policies in the context of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in December 2012 using a nationally representative panel survey of US adults. Across both cross-sectional and within-subject analyses, we find no evidence that Americans granted greater support for gun control after the Sandy Hook shooting. Our null findings persist across a range of political and demographic groups. We also find no evidence of attitude polarization as a result of Sandy Hook. Our results suggest that elite polarization in a particular issue area leads citizens to employ motivated reasoning when interpreting critical events, thereby reducing the capacity for attitude change. Our findings have important implications for identifying the conditions under which major events affect support for public policies and create political opportunities for policy change.

The Politics of Gun Control: Comparing Canadian and American Patterns

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
G A Mauser ◽  
M Margolis
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Linear Regression ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Gun Ownership ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Socioeconomic Variables ◽  
Stark Contrast

In this paper two questions are asked: To what extent do the Canadian and US publics differ in their beliefs about firearms-control legislation, and to what extent do these differences help to account for the stricter firearms legislation found in Canada? Surveys indicate that Canadians and Americans have remarkably similar attitudes towards firearms and gun control. Linear regression is used to analyze the factors that underlie the popular support for (or opposition to) stricter gun-control legislation. It is found that, with respect to support for gun control, cultural differences between Canadians and Americans are overshadowed by socioeconomic variables, such as gender and gun ownership. The similarities in public attitudes between Canadians and Americans suggest that the explanation for stricter firearms legislation in Canada lies more with the differences in political elites and institutions than with differences in public opinion. The differences in public attitudes in the two countries are insufficient to explain the stark contrast in firearms legislation.

Public Opinion About Gun Control Post–Sandy Hook

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin H. Wozniak
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Opinion Poll ◽  
Control Laws ◽  
Background Check ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
Sandy Hook Elementary School ◽  
Sandy Hook

I use data from a national public opinion poll conducted 4 months after the mass shooting of teachers and students in Sandy Hook Elementary School to analyze the content and predictors of public opinion about gun control and gun control politics. I find that a slim majority of Americans favors a semiautomatic weapon ban and proposals to make gun control laws stricter, and a large majority supports a federal background check law. Consistent with previous research, I also find that both instrumental concerns and cultural beliefs are significantly related to people’s opinions about gun control, but the strongest, most consistent predictors of people’s gun control preferences are their political beliefs and affiliations. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the national gun control debate.

Public Opinion and Gun Control

Under the Gun ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 215-241
Author(s):  
James D. Wright ◽  
Peter H. Rossi ◽  
Kathleen Daly
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Gun Control

Torts and Guns

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen D. Sugarman
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Pharmaceutical Drug ◽  
Legislative Reform ◽  
Tort Litigation ◽  
Tort Claims

AbstractWhen Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders squabbled during their 2015-16 election campaigns over the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), they were talking past each other, misleading their listeners, and failing to understand what this statute pre-empting some state tort claims against the gun industry was actually about. Many critics of PLCAA argue that gun makers and sellers should be liable just like those in the auto, pharmaceutical drug, and tobacco industries. Yet, it is very rare for defendants in those industries to be successfully sued in tort for the sort of conduct that gun control advocates would like to hold the gun industry liable. In contrast to the hopes and fears of Clinton and Sanders, repealing PLCAA would not likely result in a burst of successful lawsuits, although some might be winners. Perhaps potential and actual tort litigation against this industry is better understood as part of a longer term battle over public opinion and eventual legislative reform.

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