Young people's attitudes towards guns in America, Great Britain, and Western Australia

Abstract

AbstractAttitudes of young people in the United States of America (n=145), Great Britain (n=177) and Western Australia (n=219), towards the possession and use of firearms were explored. These were measured on an Attitudes Toward Gun Scale [Branscombe et al., 1991 “A three factor scale of attitudes towards guns,” Aggr. Behav. 17:261], with particular reference to its three underlying dimensions (rights, causes crime, and protects from crime). Findings on these three dimensions of the ATGS indicate American respondents to be in greatest favour of gun possession, scoring significantly higher than Australian and British respondents in the belief that it is a citizen's right to own a gun, and that guns provide protectionfrom crime. Australian and British respondents scored higher on items referring to the belief that guns stimulate crime. An additional item added to the scale by Cooke and Puddifoot [2000] concerning the right to carry concealed weapons gained little support from British, Australian, or American respondents. This, together with low mean scores by respondents from all nations on protection, questions the introduction of ‘gun‐carry’ laws in many states throughout the USA. Discussion centres upon the implications of such findings, and the usefulness for future research of a measure designed to explore why people own guns, choose to carry weapons, and keep guns in the home. Aggr. Behav. 30:93–104, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.