Toward a Status Anxiety Theory of Macro-level Firearm Demand

Abstract

Previous research has paid little attention to legal firearm demand, instead often focusing on illegal firearm demand. This study expands sociological research on firearms by theoretically identifying and empirically examining a new type of legal firearm demand, status anxiety demand, while also examining recreational and security firearm demand. We use unique background check data from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to measure firearm demand and test our hypotheses using random effects pooled time-series generalized least squares (GLS) regressions. Findings indicate that our measures for recreational demand and status anxiety demand both affect overall firearm sales, but that actual crime risk and the number of police in a state do not. We find that both increases in National Rifle Association (NRA) membership and Democratic Party strength in the federal government increase firearm demand, suggesting that changes in legal firearm demand are associated with political factors and not just recreational or self-defense motivations.