STUDY BY UIC PROFESSORS SAYS RACIAL PREJUDICE PLAYS A ROLE IN OPPOSITION TO GUN CONTROL

Two University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) political science professors created a study which found that racial anti-Black prejudicial motives contribute to the opposition of gun control.
Two University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) political science professors created a study which found that racial anti-Black prejudicial motives contribute to the opposition of gun control.

STUDY BY UIC PROFESSORS SAYS RACIAL PREJUDICE PLAYS A ROLE IN

OPPOSITION TO GUN CONTROL

By Christopher Shuttlesworth

In the wake of the recent mass shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, two University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) political science professors created a study, which analyzed factors of racial motives and trends that drive the support and opposition of gun control among Whites, Latinos and African

Americans.

Alexandra Filindra, an associate professor of political science and Noah Kaplan, an UIC clinical assistant professor of political science, both “analyzed the data from a 2015 survey on gun control, which was conducted by YouGov.com, an online international market research firm,”

according to a UIC press release.

Filindra explained that during the research for the study called “Testing Theories of Gun Policy Preferences Among Blacks, Latinos, and Whites in America,” she found that racial anti-Black prejudicial motives contribute to the opposition of gun control, and people who have a stronger sense of racial prejudice among the white population find the idea of having a fire arm more appealing.

“What we find is that among White people, racial prejudice is a significant predicator of opposition of gun control,” she said. “The more prejudice a person is then the more likely they are to oppose gun control. This is true for Whites and Latinos, but it doesn’t mean that every person is prejudiced.”

Filindra said her team also studied how minorities, particularly Latinos and African Americans respond to issues of gun control. She said during the research process, scientists found that both groups are far more supportive of gun control than White people.

74 percent of African Americans, 61 percent of Latinos and 55 percent of White people support an assault weapons ban, according to the UIC press release. A similar comparison showed that 86 percent of blacks and 78 percent of Latinos, but only 62 percent of whites “support the creation of a federal database that tracks sales of firearms.”

Filindra stated that the trends of opposition in gun control have been predominantly White and have been steadily declining since the mid 1990’s.

“It is a decline in support among Whites,” she said. “Among African Americans, gun ownership rates are substantially lower and we can’t tell how much of that is the result of people not wanting to reveal in surveys

that they own firearms. But certainly with taking in account central desirability, there is still a big gap in gun ownership between Blacks and Whites.”

Filindra said it is important to understand what drives public opinion about a variety of issues. She said there is a misconception behind the reason why people are supportive of gun rights.

Filindra explained that the misconception is that people desire to have access to fire arms because they may be victimized by crime. But she said the data from the study showed no correlation or association between the fear of crime and the support for gun control.

“There is this proposition that the reason Americans want guns is because they fear crime which is demonstractically wrong from a statically perspective,” she said.

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