Sociodemographic and gun possession factors contributing to gun policy attitudes among undergraduate students

Abstract

Objective

Examine the sociodemographic and gun possession factors associated with gun policy attitudes among undergraduates.

Methods

Undergraduates at a west coast university (N = 1,474) completed a questionnaire with measures of country of birth, political ideology, gender identity, gun possession at one’s own residence, friends’ and family’s gun possession, and attitudes about concealed carry, ban on assault weapons, and guns at home.

Results

Participants born outside of the United States are likely to oppose all types of gun policies; the effects of gender identity and political ideology are consistent with existing research, with conservatism supporting policies that make more guns available, and female and gender-identity-minority participants opposing them; and the effects of gun possession are not fully consistent with existing research.

Conclusion

More research is needed to reconcile the results. University administrators may employ this study’s main takeaways to tailor programs for foreign-born students, female students, and politically motivated students.

Keywords:

• administration
• gun policies
• international students
• undocumented students

Acknowledgements

Special thank you to Professor Jorge Peña for the research guidance and Ms. Leigh Katharine Smith for overseeing data collection, de-identification, and data cleaning.

Disclosure statement

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and publication of this report.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, KH-I, upon reasonable request.

Notes

1 However, a more precise way to define “transgender/genderqueer” is that it belongs a category of gender expression, not gender identity. Because this study primarily focuses on males and females, gender identity was simplified.