AUSTRALIAN STUDY CLAIMS WHITE U.S. GUN OWNERS ARE RACISTS

Researchers Kerry O’Brien (team leader), Walter Forrest, Dermot Lynott and Michael Daily from Australia’s Monash University conducted a study which concluded that white U.S. gun owners are more racist than those who do not own guns.

Because the research report is full of educatorese, I’ve decided to let you read it yourself as published in the October 31 issue of the journal PLOS | ONE:

Racism, Gun Ownership and Gun Control: Biased Attitudes in US Whites May Influence Policy Decisions
Kerry O’Brien, Walter Forrest, Dermot Lynott, Michael Daily

Abstract

Objective

Racism is related to policies preferences and behaviors that adversely affect blacks and appear related to a fear of blacks (e.g., increased policing, death penalty). This study examined whether racism is also related to gun ownership and opposition to gun controls in US whites.

Method

The most recent data from the American National Election Study, a large representative US sample, was used to test relationships between racism, gun ownership, and opposition to gun control in US whites. Explanatory variables known to be related to gun ownership and gun control opposition (i.e., age, gender, education, income, conservatism, anti-government sentiment, southern vs. other states, political identification) were entered in logistic regression models, along with measures of racism, and the stereotype of blacks as violent. Outcome variables included; having a gun in the home, opposition to bans on handguns in the home, support for permits to carry concealed handguns.

Results

After accounting for all explanatory variables, logistic regressions found that for each 1 point increase in symbolic racism there was a 50% increase in the odds of having a gun at home. After also accounting for having a gun in the home, there was still a 28% increase in support for permits to carry concealed handguns, for each one point increase in symbolic racism. The relationship between symbolic racism and opposition to banning handguns in the home (OR1.27 CI 1.03,1.58) was reduced to non-significant after accounting for having a gun in the home (OR1.17 CI.94,1.46), which likely represents self-interest in retaining property (guns).

Conclusions

Symbolic racism was related to having a gun in the home and opposition to gun control policies in US whites. The findings help explain US whites’ paradoxical attitudes towards gun ownership and gun control. Such attitudes may adversely influence US gun control policy debates and decisions.
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Hmm, I wonder if Dr. O’Brien’s study also means that the more guns you own, the more racist you are? That would make me one helluva racist!

Seriously though, the study seems flawed to me because if you look at the abstract, you can see that the research team was biased and set out from the get-go to prove 'racism is also related to gun ownership.'