The Daily: The Gun Ownership Identity Problem

May 27, 2022

This week on The Daily, we used a headline no one wanted to read: Another Elementary School Massacre.

It's a title that defies language conventions — and logic. "Massacre" was never meant to be juxtaposed with "elementary school." But here we are, commemorating an ugly anniversary, 10 years on from the Sandy Hook shooting that led to countless unrealized promises for reform.

So why has enacting common-sense gun control been so hard? One reason, experts say, is because of the relationship between gun ownership and identity in America. We take a closer look at that idea below.

The big idea: Why gun reform is at a stalemate

By Lauren Jackson

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Callaghan O'Hare for The New York Times

It's a nauseating, familiar cycle.

A massacre occurs. Children die in their classrooms from a legally purchased rifle. The news spreads. And as the death count rises, horror morphs into outrage and denial simultaneously.

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In a bizarre split-screen of responses, some progressives call for gun control while some conservatives insist the answer lies in arming more Americans. Finger pointing on social media ensues.

This polarization, combined with Congressional gridlock, results in a deadly political impasse. All the while, America persists in its macabre exceptionalism — occupying a league of its own for the amount of guns in circulation, frequency of mass shootings and number of people who die by gunfire annually.

"Why are we willing to live with this carnage?" President Biden said on Tuesday night after returning from a trip to Asia. "Why do we keep letting this happen?"

One answer, according to researchers, could come from understanding the power of the identity of gun ownership. Let us explain.

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The identity of gun ownership

Gun owners in America have long felt a strong fidelity to their weapons, for a variety of reasons ranging from protection to sport. This dates to at least the 1930s, when attempts at federal gun regulation first began, according to Matthew Lacombe, a political science professor at Barnard College.

However, the individual identity of gun owners began to take shape as an organized social and political force in the late 1970s. In 1977, strident gun rights activists assumed control of the National Rifle Association and "brought the organization into closer alignment with conservative movement actors and then eventually the Republican Party," Mr. Lacombe said.

In doing so, the N.R.A. successfully made "the right to bear arms and opposition to gun control a pillar of conservative or American identity," said Mugambi Jouet, a professor at McGill University's law school. Now, the notion of gun rights is part of a "packaged" identity that "closely resembles what it means to be a Republican today," Mr. Lacombe added.

A majority of Republicans, even if they aren't gun owners, say gun regulations should either stay the same or become less strict. They also support allowing people to carry concealed guns in more places and allowing teachers and school officials to carry guns in K-12 schools. Gun owners who identify as Democrats, however, are more likely than Republicans to support moderate gun reform.

An identity under threat

The measured linkage between gun ownership and a sense of identity and community may make starting conversations about even modest gun control measures difficult.

While progressives believe they are attempting to hold a conversation based on policy, those conversations can often feel like an identity-based threat, Mr. Lacombe said.

"It no longer is about abstract policy proposals that people would be willing to accept. Instead, it's perceived as, 'these people who I consider my enemy are proposing this initiative. And that, details aside, just seems like an attack on who I am and what I believe in,'" he added. "That's certainly how the N.R.A. frames even fairly innocuous gun control measures. And that's been pretty key to its mobilization capabilities."

Absolutist in their interpretation of the Second Amendment and open to wielding controversy for its public relations benefit, the N.R.A. is quite possibly the most powerful lobbying organization and certainly one of the most feared by conservative lawmakers for its ability to initiate a career-ending backlash. According to experts, the association's capacity to mobilize may be located in the linkage between gun ownership and conceptions of identity.

Research shows that when an identity is perceived to be under attack, it often becomes even more important to a person. And in a hyper-polarized political environment, these identity-based threats have made the issue "central to many people's worldview," Mr. Jouet said. "And people are rarely willing to abandon their sense of identity."

So what?

Those who most influence this debate view gun rights as central to their individual, social and political identity. Understanding that can help reframe the conversation around gun control, Mr. Lacombe said.

Specifically, understanding the emotional appeal of identity-based arguments can encourage the gun control movement to align itself with other deeply held identities — like that of a parent interested in protecting a child. The movement "has done a much better job" of this in recent years, he added.

He also notes that this understanding could encourage activists to communicate their perspectives without "increasing the extent to which people hate an out-group," he said. "I think there is a middle ground that can highlight why an issue is something that people, for example, who care about their kids should care about without necessarily saying, 'OK, everybody who might disagree on this issue literally wants to see children die."

Ultimately, school shootings are the result of a disastrous alchemy of elements. The ease of gun access in America. Poor mental health and limited public support for treatment. A history of mediatized tragedies and the possibility of livestreaming the act with some perverse promise of infamy.

But sitting behind all of those contributing factors is a powerful social force that has worked to make this a highly emotional, not simply rational, conversation. And understanding that, experts say, could help the country collectively move toward a different future.

The alignment of the Republican Party with gun ownership is "a peculiar conception of conservatism by both U.S. historical standards and Western standards," Mr. Jouet said. "The fact that this mind-set did not gain significant traction before recent decades suggests that other perspectives may emerge someday."

From the Audio team: This week in narrated articles

By Desiree Ibekwe

Every week we curate a list of five narrated articles from the team. Sometimes these stories — read aloud by the journalists that wrote them — are newsy, often they are beautifully wacky and almost always they're touching. Here's what is on our playlist this week:

Guy Fieri, Elder Statesman of Flavortown: He is television's spike-haired rhapsodist of roadside eats. But Guy Fieri is now also winning the food world's respect as a sort of graying eminence. "If you only hear Metallica as a heavy-metal band, then you are not hearing Metallica," Mr. Fieri said in this profile. "Now maybe you don't like that style. But they're real musicians."

Baby Formula Shortage Reveals Gaps in Regulation and Reporting: The government has ordered more safeguards at an Abbott Nutrition plant. But the lack of reporting requirements and limited testing make it hard to monitor the deadly bacterium that led to a recall.

A Boxed Set for the Birds Hopes to Save Them, Too: A star-studded, 242-track trove of songs and poems inspired by birdsong is the latest project in a series of releases raising awareness about its own threatened sources.

In Minneapolis, Overhaul Efforts Stall as Police Resist Change: Since the murder of George Floyd by a veteran police officer, the city's mayor has ordered a host of policy changes to rein in the police, including banning chokeholds, restricting no-knock warrants and traffic stops and stepping up discipline for misconduct. But the department has repeatedly been caught violating the mayor's edicts.

Your Dog Is Not Ready for You to Return to the Office: Many New Yorkers have returned to their workplaces, or never stopped going to them. But for those contemplating the transition now, and for their dogs, a day of reckoning has arrived. More than 23 million American households added a cat or dog during the pandemic, according to the A.S.P.C.A., and many of those animals have never known what it is like to be left alone all day.

On The Daily this week

Monday: It was a tactical disaster for Russia's military, a failed crossing of the Donets River in eastern Ukraine led to heavy losses for Russian troops and rare criticism of the Kremlin's war efforts.

Tuesday: Lessons learned from Russia's invasion of Ukraine seem to be responsible, in part, for an apparent shift in American policy toward Taiwan.

Wednesday: What can the experience of some of the Sandy Hook parents tell us about what now awaits those who lost children in Uvalde, Texas?

Thursday: The Republican primaries in Georgia and Pennsylvania tested the lingering influence of false claims about 2020 election fraud.

Friday: The recent shutdown of one of the largest baby formula production plants in the United States has sent families scrambling to find essential food for their children.