BIO

I am a second-year Public Health major and am pursuing a minor in Public Administration. My research focuses on firearms, their uses, and how they apply to people and society. Currently, I am doing my own research as well on gun policies in the United States. Eventually, as I work towards graduate school and my career, I would like to continue my firearm research.

Traditional Gender Role Ideologies and Firearms

Abstract

Although several studies have examined gender differences in gun-related attitudes, little is known about how traditional gender role attitudes might contribute to the gun policy preferences of Americans or their decision to own a gun. Our analysis of national data from the Baylor Religion Survey indicates that Americans who report more traditional gender role beliefs are more likely to support policies that would increase the number of armed people in schools and allow more people to carry concealed firearms and less likely to support policies that would limit the possession of handguns, semi-automatic weapons, and high capacity magazines. Interestingly, individualswho report more traditional gender role attitudes are also less likely to support policies that would expand gun safety programs and background checks that include mental health screenings. These associations persisted with adjustments for age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, household income, marital status, the presence of children, religious identity, religiosity, political orientation, region of residence, and urban residence. We conclude that traditional attitudes about gender are consistently associated with less restrictive and more precarious gun policy preferences among Americans. These patterns are noteworthy because they support the same general conclusion: Americans who report more traditional views about gender tend to want more guns in society with fewer legal restrictions related to access and safety. We also find that there are significant differences between men and women who hold these views. Men with more traditional views of gender are more likely to own a gun and support more liberal gun policies.

Keywords: guns, gender roles, ideologies