Where do rural Americans stand on these gun control proposals? What motivates their views on gun-related issues?
It is no secret that rural Americans have differing views on guns than their urban or suburban counterparts. A Pew research poll from 2017, found that only 59% of urban gun-owners see the right to own guns as an "essential freedom," whereas 82% of rural gun-owners see this right as "essential." So even amongst rural and urban gun-owners there are differing cultural values.
What causes this difference in opinion? I think some of this cultural divide can be explained by the difference in gun-ownership rates. Fifty-eight percent of rural Americans live in a household containing a gun, while only 29% of urban Americans live with a gun in their home. Thus an American born into a rural family is more likely to have grown with a gun-owning parent. This could have a cultural impact on rural Americans, who may see firearms as less terrifying than their urban counterparts due to that increased exposure to them.
Another reason rural Americans may not see stricter gun control measures as necessary, is due to the fact that gun violence affects urban Americans more. Urban counties produce five times the level of gun violence that rural counties experience. In addition, a recent study found that universal background checks produced a 13% decrease in firearm homicides in big cities, but had no discernible effect on firearm homicide rates in smaller localities.
Perhaps rural Americans don't see a need for stricter gun control laws because the effects of our current laws are felt most distinctly in the major cities. It's also unclear how much these gun control laws would reduce gun violence in rural communities, which could also lead to rural indifference towards them.
I discovered an interesting proposal to help solve this dilemma: let cities and rural areas pass different gun laws. There are obvious flaws with such an idea. The first being that urban Americans could just drive to the nearest "rural area" to circumvent their stricter urban gun laws. It's important to note that this flaw is present in our current system as well; since Americans can drive to neighboring states to circumvent gun laws.
Another concern is whether it'd be legal for a state to apply its laws differently to its own citizens depending on where they live. Arizona once attempted to pass a gun law that only applied to counties with populations greater than 500,000. This law was then struck down by the Arizona Supreme Court, who ruled that the population requirement violated a provision in Arizona's state constitution that prohibits the enactment of local laws concerning crimes or misdemeanors.
A statutory scheme that treats Americans differently based upon the population totals of their county of residence seems ripe for an equal protection claim under the Fourteenth Amendment. Thus this proposal may be unconstitutional, and its merits needn't even be discussed.
Rural Americans often have a different set of experiences regarding firearms than urban Americans do, and these experiences may bleed into their opinions on gun control. This may necessitate gun laws that vary upon locality, or perhaps a federal approach that's more moderate to appease rural Americans. Or perhaps rural America's love for firearms is irrelevant when compared to the public health crisis that guns have created. Regardless, rural Americans have a reverence for firearms that needs to be addressed if you wish to change their mind on gun control.
4 comments:
This was an interesting topic! I had not heard of the proposal to let rural and urban areas pass different gun laws-- I wonder how it would work in mixed urban and rural counties. I agree with you that people have differing cultural contexts in regard to guns. Someone who lives somewhere with a hunting and fishing culture will have a different perspective on guns than someone who grows up in an urban environment without those hobbies. I am not familiar with guns, but I wonder if some of the divide could be alleviated by tailoring gun controls to the types of guns used more often in gun violence, rather than the kind used for things like deer and duck hunting.
Likewise, I hadn't heard of the idea of localized gun laws. This makes sense to me following our readings about some rural areas where law enforcement is not present. I also echo Amelia's concerns about how it would work in mixed urban/rural counties. How would it work state by state? I'm thinking of NY, home to country's largest city as well as a rural upstate area, because I recently learned the Supreme Court is considering a cert petition for an NY gun control case that could be consequential. (https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/03/an-important-right-to-carry-case-and-another-close-look-at-a-sixth-circuit-decision-granting-habeas-relief/) Lastly, the Pew stat noting that a third of Americans live in a house with a gun (combined rural and urban) seems really significant to me as a comparative data point.
The idea of allowing gun laws to vary by local is really interesting! I think it would be helpful to get votes and popular support to pass gun laws in more populated areas - but I'm concerned about how this would be upheld in practice. Are background checks for assault weapons and other common-sense gun control measures effective if they are only passed in some more metro areas? I'm not sure I know the answer one way or another, but this article definitely got me thinking!
According to the CDC, 6 out of 10 gun deaths are a suicide. I wonder how suicide-by-gun stats compare in rural vs urban areas. For suicides, it doesn't matter whether there is an assualt weapon ban or a limit on magazine capacity. Do background checks stop someone with suicidal intent from buying a gun? I know waiting periods can be helpful for this, but what about people who already have a gun? It frustrates me that there are surface level calls for focus on "mental health" but little movement when it comes to understanding why Americans kill themselves and how we get people out of those head spaces.
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