Won’t You Be My Neighbor? The Intersection of Preferences for Race and Guns

• In Event: 40821 - Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 10. Neighborhood Preferences and Residential Mobility

Abstract

Building on Charles’s (2000) foundational work on racial preferences, this project explores how race and firearm prevalence jointly shape Americans’ neighborhood choices. We adopt a grid-based experimental design in which participants assign racial and gun-ownership attributes to simulated households, allowing us to observe how these cues interact in shaping local environments.
Findings from a nationally representative panel (N≈1,000) indicate that participants generally disfavor firearms—especially AR-15s—and exhibit stronger aversions in contexts featuring racial out-groups. For instance, participants place fewer guns in Black-majority settings, highlighting a racialized dimension to firearm distribution. We employ regression analyses to test hypotheses regarding (1) persistent racial hierarchies, (2) aversion to various forms of gun ownership, and (3) the role of participant traits such as race, gender, and personal gun ownership in moderating these preferences.
By merging insights from community and urban sociology, social psychology, and survey experimental advancements, this research underscores how gun debates may intersect with racial boundaries in new ways. A second wave of data collection is underway, offering further exploration of how demographic factors condition neighborhood preferences. Our project contributes to ongoing discussions of segregation, polarization, and threat perception, shedding light on how race and guns jointly shape residential decision-making in the United States.

Authors

• Justin Lucas Sola, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Justin Pickett, University at Albany, SUNY