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Modeling Facts, Culture and Cognition in the Gun Debate
Kahan, Dan Braman, Donald Grimmelmann, James
Kahan, Dan
Braman, Donald
Grimmelmann, James
Abstract
The “Great American Gun Debate” isn’t really one debate but two (Kates & Kleck, 1997). The first is empirical. Gun-control supporters argue that the ready availability of firearms diminishes public safety by facilitating violent crimes and accidental shootings; control opponents reply that the ready availability of guns enhances public safety by enabling potential crime victims to ward off violent predation (Duggan, 2001; Lott, 2000). The second debate is cultural. Control opponents (who tend to be rural, southern or western, Protestant, male, and white) venerate guns as symbols of personal honor, individual self-sufficiency, and respect for social authority. Control supporters (who are disproportionately urban, eastern, Catholic or Jewish, female, and African-American) despise firearms, which to them symbolize the perpetuation of illicit social hierarchies, the elevation of force over reason, and collective indifference to the well-being of strangers (Dizard, Muth, & Andrews, 1999; Slotkin, 1998; Tonso, 1982; Hofstadter, 1970; Kleck, 1996; Kahan, 1999). Conducted in legislative chambers and courtrooms, on street corners and op-ed pages, the gun debate alternates between clashing positions on what guns do and what guns mean.