A Burial for Guns: Inductive Analysis of Voluntary Gun Relinquishment

• In Event: Roundtable: Violence

Abstract

While the United States is often known as a pro-gun country, most Americans do not own guns. More importantly, gun ownership status is not immutable, as some gun owners even decide to voluntarily divest from their guns today. However, research on why and how people may divest remains scarce. In response, this pilot study inductively investigated the pathways to voluntary gun divestment through in-depth interviews with five former gun owners. Preliminary findings showed that former gun owners divested from their guns after witnessing firsthand the destructiveness of gun-related harms and developing the personalized fear of being responsible for the harms against themselves and their loved ones. These findings not only remain consistent with the existing literature on the opposition to gun ownership but also demonstrate the significance of recognizing voluntary gun divestment as a salient topic in gun research. Future research should speak with more former gun owners to explore diverse conditions and processes that may lead to voluntary gun divestment.

Author

• Mary Lee, University of California, Irvine