Social Mistrust and Gun Ownership in the Obama Era: A Gender-Stratified Analysis of the General Social Survey

Background and Purpose: The United States has one of the highest gun violence rates compared to other developed countries. The gun control debate has typically focused on gun violence as a criminal justice problem, but not as a public health issue. Additionally, the media has focused much of its attention on mass shootings and have overlooked that more than 96% of intentional gun deaths are suicides and homicides. Social work advocates and policy makers must recognize the salient role firearm access may play in reducing such devastating events. Given that social trust and community development is part of the social work’s mission, examining the association between social mistrust and gun ownership during the Obama administration may provides us with intervention plans to reduce gun violence in the United States. A discussion about building research strategies in gun control laws, gun ownership and social trust among adults in the United States will be addressed.

Methods:

First, a systematic review was conducted to address the relationship between social mistrust and firearm ownership across the United States. Second, evidence was demonstrated via secondary statistical analysis using the data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System 2008 to 2014 to report intentional firearm-related deaths.  Quantitative evidence from the General Social Survey 2008-2014 will connect how social mistrust plays a role in gun access among adults 18 and over in the United States. Third, a trend analysis and multiple regression was conducted to compare the patterns of gun ownership and social mistrust among males and females during the Obama administration. Presentation on these data aim to provide evidence-based policy recommendations.

Results:

Firearm-related suicides comprise nearly two-thirds (63.5%) of all intentional firearm-related deaths in the United States, whereas one third (32.6%) are firearm-related homicides. Approximately, 56.5% of males and 61.6% of females agree that “most people cannot be trusted” from 2008 to 2014. Since 1972, there has been a steady increase in mistrust for both males and females. Moreover, there was a significant change between the Obama and Bush administration among gun ownership among white males. The rise of mistrust since 1972 has steadily increased for females and has been at its peak under the Bush and Obama administration. A regression analysis shows that there is a significant relationship between gun ownership and social mistrust in the overall population (t=6.05, p=.001, R²=.044).

Conclusions and Implication: The current trend in gun ownership highlights the critical problem related to the rising mistrust trend under the Obama administration among males and females. Examining firearm policies, specifically gun ownership, can provide people with feeling safer in their environment. Even though there are firearm policies that prevent firearm-related deaths, the needs between females and males may be different. Given that females have a higher mistrust compared to males, future research should examine factors associated with mistrust among females in the upcoming election.