Jeniffer Gerson
Originally published by The 19th
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Young Americans who identify strongly with gun use and gun ownership often hold male supremacist beliefs and racial resentment.
The young people who are most closely associated with guns are more likely to be white people who have worse symptoms of anxiety or depression, according to new research conducted by Everytown for Gun Safety, American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The research also found that men were more familiar with and agreed more with the following “gun narratives”: “Guns allow the weak to stand up to the strong,” “People should buy guns now because society might collapse in our lifetime;” “It isn’t fair that the actions of a few troubles individuals should have a negative effect on the gun rights of good Americans who have done everything right;” “Guns are the best way to defend yourself, loved ones and your community;” and, “Guns bring families together.”
This first-of-its-kind look at American youth’s attitudes about gun violence polled over 4,000 American young people between the ages of 14 and 30 from a nationally representative sample over the past year. The researchers, who also conducted qualitative focus groups with participants, found that youth with stronger male supremacist and racist attitudes tend to hold stronger beliefs that adults in schools should be armed, feel safer with guns than without guns, and have stronger trust in the police.
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A number of beliefs and experiences corresponded to higher measures of male supremacy. The higher the number of experiences a person has had related to injuries or deaths from gun violence, the higher the belief respondents held that guns defend minorities, and the higher the belief that the Second Amendment gives Americans the right to overthrow the government, all correlated with higher scored measures of male supremacy.
Pasha Dashtgard, the director of research at PERIL and an expert on male supremacy and online radicalization, said one factor propelling this sentiment is a shifting economic landscape in America.
“In places of economic instability, men are shifting from this attitude of man as provider to man as protector,” he said. “You may not be able to, as a man, be the primary breadwinner, but you can — through acquiring guns and the willingness to use guns for violence — reclaim your masculinity as a protector.”
Even in young people, this sentiment was notable and behind many of the things that participants expressed to the researchers during interviews. Dashtgard said this speaks to a larger cultural dynamic at play currently, where many white men are feeling unsure of how to articulate themselves as men in current society. As a result, many young men are turning to guns as an “unimpeachable access to masculinity.”