If having a gun increases the risk of gun-related violent death in the home, why do people choose to own guns?
Pierre, J. M., “The psychology of guns: risk, fear, and motivated reasoning”, Palgrave Communications, 5, 2019
My thoughts go with the children, teachers at the Robb Elementary School in Texas, and their family members.
I will start with my viewpoint on this debate of whether guns kill people vs people kill people – people attack, and they use readily available weapons to cause harm to “the other“. The more lethal the tool used, the deadlier the injury, with death as the endpoint. In other words, if stones are accessible, the outraged may throw and hurt the other, and if guns are accessible, they may kill a few; in a more barbarian society, replace guns with bombs! Only the scale changes. It is as simple as that.
There are statistics, and so are beliefs
In one of the previous posts, we discovered that suicides dominated the gun-related deaths. Studies after studies report the association that homicides are largely incidents committed by family members and acquaintances and not strangers.
Yet, the society, the US in this context, supports and takes great pride in possession of guns! The proponents of guns have several reasons (excuses) to support their position, starting with individual freedom (we have seen it in Covid-19 mask mandates!), to what is known, as per some studies, as the knowledge deficit model.
But one theory that became the most prominent among them points to the aspect of human decision making – i.e., irrationality, controlled by cognitive biases (cherry-picking, motivated reasoning, availability heuristics, status quo bias). As per Metzl, this behaviour stems from the notion of the cultural heritage of gun owners. And it does not come as a surprise that other social cancers (a.k.a. resistance to progress) – religiosity, racism, sexism, nationalism – too originate from similar backgrounds.
The Second Amendment
The story goes back to the second amendment of the US constitution that states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
First, you need to remember that this followed centuries-old practices of England (English Bill of Rights of 1689), which was embraced and ratified by the US constitution in 1791. And the reason to carry this baggage of the past? The answer is complicated.
Social scientists have been approaching this American love of guns through the lenses of gender, masculinity and race. On top of these, there are the thriving forces of fear of “bad guys, thugs and carjackers“, amply fostered by the ever-powerful National Rifle Association (NRA).
Uncertain future
A solution based on rational, data-based arguments is unlikely to reap any rewards against motivated reasoning. The issue is deep-rooted in American society as a national identity, symbol of resistance, and a collective history of race, gender and socioeconomic status. And as always, such diseases require long term care to heal.
Further Reading
Metzl, J., What guns mean: the symbolic lives of firearms, 2019, Palgrave Comm., 5:35
Pierre, J. M., The psychology of guns: risk, fear, and motivated reasoning, 2019, Palgrave Comm., 5:159
