Prejudice and Pistols: Gun Owner Identity, Racial Resentment and Subsequent Attitudes toward Guns

Abstract

The national debate surrounding gun ownership and racial attitudes has only intensified over the last several years. Using social identity theory and racial resentment theory, I argue a distinct, gun owner identity exists and is associated with racial attitudes. In particular, I hypothesize that when gun owner identity is high, so too are levels of racial resentment. I further hypothesize that when gun owners are primed to think about race, they express attitudes regarding gun control contradictory to that which we would expect; in ways that seem contrary to their self-interest. Through an analysis of a University of Kansas survey, I develop an innovative measure of gun owner identity. I then use both traditional measures of racial resentment and an embedded experiment within a survey to test my hypotheses. My results suggest that gun owners, and gun owners with higher gun owner identities, are indeed more likely to be racially resentful. Additionally, when primed to think about race, gun owners will exhibit discrimination toward minority gun owners and display policy attitudes opposite to those expressed when they are not primed to think about race. I conclude with a discussion of the implications these results hold for public policy and broader American culture.