A Good Neighbor With a Gun? Experiments on Preferences for Social Proximity and Interaction

• In Event: Firearm Policies, Public Perceptions, and Public Policy

Abstract

When examining American gun ownership, scholars focus on individual predictors of personal ownership or attitudes towards gun control. However, no (man with a) gun is an island; gun ownership, unlike other constitutional rights, can affect the safety and security of neighbors. Gun advocates claim that an armed society is a more secure and polite society. Some also claim that unlocked, loaded guns in the home effectively defend against crime. But are Americans okay with living neighbors with such ready access? With a nationwide sample of more than 2,000 US adults, we conduct preregistered conjoint and picture-based vignette survey experiments to investigate how gun ownership and gun storage affect preferences for hypothetical neighbors.

Our ongoing analysis of the conjoint data reveals significant heterogeneity in participants’ preferences for neighbors’ gun ownership, particularly associated with political affiliation and other key covariates. Furthermore, our ongoing analysis of the vignette data demonstrates that participants prefer safer storage and are particularly averse to neighbors with unattended loaded handguns. Our research contributes to the growing literature on the socialization of gun culture, formation of residential preferences, and the role of political polarization in social proximity.

Authors

• Justin Lucas Sola, University of California, Irvine

• Justin Pickett, SUNY Albany