Race–gender bias in white Americans’ preferences for gun availability

Abstract

We argue that Americans’ policy attitudes on firearm availability are influenced by the identity of the prospective owner. We use an experiment to demonstrate that attitudes towards gun control/availability are influenced by both race and gender; whether subjects are primed to think of African-Americans versus whites or men versus women has a substantial impact on the degree to which they support firearm access. We find that for many white Americans, Black men and white women stand on opposite poles – priming white Americans with the thought of a Black man decreases support for gun availability, whereas priming the thought of a white woman increases support for gun availability. Further, the magnitude of this effect is quite large – comparable to the difference between Democrats and Republicans. These findings underscore the importance of thinking about the complicated role identity groups play in understanding Americans’ preferences for government (in)action, even in policy areas with explicit Constitutional mandates.

Are guns the new dog whistle? Gun control, racial resentment, and vote choice*

“…This is compounded by the fact that gun rights advocates commonly believe that only law‐abiding citizens obey gun laws, and thus, “if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns” (Wright, 1988, p. 30). Again, such rhetoric evokes racialized imagery due to the racial typification of crime (Pickett et al., 2012), evidenced by the fact that many Americans feel threatened by Black gun ownership but not by White gun ownership (Carlson, 2019; Hayes et al., 2020).…”

“…In practice, the right to bear arms was not always extended to all American residents. Many states issued “Black codes” and regulations that constricted the rights of both free and enslaved Blacks from purchasing and owning guns (Cook & Goss, 2014; Cramer, 1994), in some cases prohibiting Black gun ownership entirely (Hayes et al., 2020). When these codes were eventually labeled unconstitutional, policy makers found subtler ways to limit Black gun ownership, such as banning types of affordable handguns that were most commonly owned by Blacks (Cook & Goss, 2014).…”

“…Today public attitudes toward guns and gun control policies remain racialized (Carlson, 2020b; Stroud, 2016; Wetts & Willer, 2019). Members of the public continue to believe that guns are most dangerous in the hands of Blacks (Hayes et al., 2020), a perception that also permeates police forces across the country (Carlson, 2019). Throughout the turbulent Civil Rights Movement, Blacks often owned and carried guns in self‐defense (Winkler, 2011).…”

Who Wants to Know? White Racial Attitudes and Survey Item Refusal on Gun Ownership Questions

“…There remains, however, a paucity of evidence about how racial attitudes, net of political factors, might shape this reluctance to share information about gun ownership. In an environment in which gun politics have become deeply racialized and while the face of the federal government was the nation’s first Black President, such a hypothesis is worth testing (Brown, 2013; Carlson, 2020; Filindra and Kaplan, 2016; Hayes, Fortunato, and Hibbing, 2020).…”

How the Identity of Substance Users Shapes Public Opinion on Opioid Policy

“…These differences in the identities of opioid substance users may be what has caused public opinion and subsequently public policy to support treatment rather than punishment much more than during past drug crises. Past research has shown that associating racial minorities with other policies—from welfare, to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to gun ownership—may cause white Americans to oppose those policies (e.g., Gilens, 1999 ; Hayes et al, 2020 ; Tesler, 2012 ). The whiter media narrative surrounding the opioid crisis could, in an opposite effect, drive members of the public to support compassionate opioid treatment policies.…”