A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that across all political and social groups in the United States, there is a strong preference against living near AR-15 rifle owners and neighbors who store guns outside of locked safes. This surprising consensus suggests that when it comes to immediate living environments, Americans’ views on gun control may be less divided than the polarized national debate suggests.
The research was conducted against a backdrop of increasing gun violence and polarization on gun policy in the United States. The United States has over 350 million civilian firearms and gun-related incidents, including accidents and mass shootings, have become a leading cause of death in the country. Despite political divides, the new study aimed to explore whether there’s common ground among Americans in their immediate living environments, focusing on neighborhood preferences related to gun ownership and storage.
It all comes down to the same basic selfishness. Gun lovers don’t want those crazies next door to have AR-15s, they only want themselves to have all the AR-15s, loaded and lying on the coffee table in case they suddenly need them.
Yeah not sure about the other responsible gun owners, but I certainly want my neighbors to have some firepower. Remember that firearms are supposed to be a check and/or balance against tyranny.
I’m fine with it as long as they’re properly trained and respect it.
Oh yeah you can exercise your rights somewhere else. Somewhere waaaay in another county.
I imagine people (in the US) would be less itchy about neighbors with guns if everyone had bullet resistant walls and there were fewer accidental discharges around.
I think people would be less itchy about neighbors with guns if less school children were being massacred.
That would definitely help.
The only righteous abortion is my abortion, and the only safe unsecured AR-15 is my unsecured AR-15.
I want to open up an abortion clinic/FFL. Gonna run a special, free AR-15 with every abortion (provided the patient passes a NICs check).
That oughta rustle like, everyone’s jimmies.
psypost
Am I reading this data sheet correctly? Did they seriously use a data set of 2100 people and call that “widespread”?
A sample of 2100 people is often sufficient to get a statistical significant result for a population of around 50 million with a 5% margin of error.
I’d maybe add a few thousand more for a study that represents the entire USA, but 2100 isn’t a small sample size.
US citizens be like: “It’s fine with us, buchy’all needta keep all that over there!”
😀🤷♂️😅
America fuck yeah
As a matter of fact, most progressive policies have majority support in the US. The system is deliberately designed to prevent the will of the majority from being enacted.
The primary problem with implementing those policies that people want are in the details. Everyone wants [thing], but have widely differing views on what that means. Or they have concerns, some of which are valid, that get in the way of implementing the change.
Most people want universal background checks and for people who are likely to be violent to not have guns. But many also don’t want registration to be tracked because when it has been teacked it has been made publically available. Others don’t want to have to pay for the background check to loan their gun to a friend for hunting.
That is of course before differences in who should be paying for the checks and how to track a check was made without that list being made public.
It is like saying everyone likes fruit, but we have to establish a list of acceptable fruit that will never cover the differences in what kinds of fruit people like. Have fun passing that law.
That would be the task of a democratic process, to figure out those details, if only there was one.
If only we had a functioning democracy!
The filibuster is the tool used most often to avoid even having those discussions in congress. The House won’t spend time on legislation that will just be filibustered in the Senate.
As a human being, I truly hate mob rule. Just leave me alone and let me live my life the way I want to live it. You do you, I do me.
That’s a feature, not a bug. The point is you want to protect rights fro the tyranny of the majority.
That’s called democracy. You have to accept democratic decisions even if you don’t like them. I think you people are extremely pathetic for preferring fascist dictatorship to democracy just so can keep stroking your fucking guns.
Tyranny of the Majority is the concept.
There are supposed to be fundamental rights that remain protected even when one falls into a minority. The tyranny of the majority includes silencing the temporarily minority opposition party, for example. Or minority ethnic and religious groups who are demonized by a slim majority.
And that isn’t happening in the current US system?
I take it you are only against it when it happens to the wrong people.
Of course it is. And guess what? It’s wrong in that case too.
Freedom of assembly means, yes, to freedom to protest things that the majority in the country are okay with.
Their comment has nothing to do with guns.
Suuuuure. Whenever US “conservatives” talk about their rights being taken away, that is always what they mean.
That and their right to force us all into following the rules of their religion.
LOL. I’m not even remotely a conservative. By every political measure, I’m a social libertarian, or an anarchist.
Taking rights away only benefits authoritarians. And there are a whooooooole lot of authoritarians in both major US parties.
Another one that people are talking about right now is reproductive rights; I think women should have them. Lots of old white dudes around me (and, TBH, a lot of the women too, because they drink the Flavor-Aid) think women should not have that right.
If you went back 50 or 60 years, you’d be looking at rights to protest (which are on the chopping block now, too), and rights to freedom from religious tyranny (which, again, is also a problem now, albeit mostly in flyover states).
Rights are never very popular when they’re being exercised by minority groups.
If we’re going to accept the concept of rights in the first place, then we also have to say that the majority can’t take those rights away from the minority when a particular right isn’t popular anymore.
So when America democratically decides to end free speech for palestine supporters you’ll just lay down and take it?
They already did that. Everyone protesting safely is a progressive idea with broad support that’s being withheld. And the argument that we can’t grant basic rights because there might be a tyranny of the majority is illogical and morally bankrupt.
You know what stops cops from overreacting at protests? It begins with R and ends with ifles.
The point is you want to protect rights fro the tyranny of the majority.
Eh, that may have been the excuse for the separation of powers into a Republic, but that’s not what gave rural southern states an advantage of their more populated neighbors in the north.
That was the great compromise in 1787, which led to the 3/5th compromise. They didn’t fear the “tyranny of the majority” as much as they didn’t want to join a union that could potentially outlaw slavery.
It didn’t really give the southern states an ‘advantage’; it mostly meant that the north couldn’t steamroll them. But the south also couldn’t force their will on the north. It forced the states to have some kind of consensus, rather than allowing the more populous states to govern without the consent of the less populous states.
It’s… Complicated.
I want individual rights to be respected. To that end, I have a problem with the way a lot of states treat e.g. LGBTQ people. But I’m also distrustful of allowing all/most governance to be from a single, centralized organization that isn’t very responsive or responsible.
It didn’t really give the southern states an ‘advantage’; it mostly meant that the north couldn’t steamroll them.
I think that’s just a semantic dispute waiting to happen… Plus, I’d hardly call wanting to end slavery “steam rolling” the south.
But the south also couldn’t force their will on the north. It forced the states to have some kind of consensus,
Maybe not in the time it was written, but I’m pretty sure we’re dealing with the south forcing their opinions on people presently.
rather than allowing the more populous states to govern without the consent of the less populous states.
And that may have made sense when we were mostly just a loose confederation… as an actual country it’s done nothing but create a tyranny of the minority.
But I’m also distrustful of allowing all/most governance to be from a single, centralized organization that isn’t very responsive or responsible.
I could say the same thing about states rights bullshit. That loose confederations just create an environment where there is no overall protection for minority views, and that state governments are too individualistic and incompetent to respond to crises like COVID. And that they are highly irresponsible and unresponsive unless there’s a federal mandate, or it entises their lust for bigotry.
Oh yes we need to protect the rights of (checks notes) religious people to oppress us all.
Yup definitely in danger of a tyranny of the majority.
Edit, looking down thread you’re not here in good faith. You say we can’t have progressive ideas with broad support because tyranny of the majority but you use those very same ideas as examples of things that might be crushed by a tyranny of the majority. Let’s be real the stuff we can’t vote out because of this system is the right of rich white people to oppress minorities. The right of police to execute people. The right of corporations to abuse their workers. No one in the majority is out there cheering the arrest of protestors or the implementation of Christian Sharia law.
You don’t believe that I’m here in good faith because I believe in individual liberties…?
That’s certainly a take.
But you don’t. Based on what you’ve said you favor the rights of capitalists and corporations over individuals.
idk man, i’m less concerned about people owning guns, than i am about stupid people owning guns, though to be fair, im not scared of dying, so it’s not like that matters anyway.
So how about all those handgun owners that actually commit crimes? Like Chicago? AR-15s and other rifles are less likely to be used in a crime vs handguns. And how exactly does anyone know how another person stores their firearms in their homes? Pretty sure none of my neighbors in the past two decades have a clue as to what firearms I own, much less where my firearms are stored.
lol… this is just outright silly.
I would prefer my neighbor not own a subwoofer, but I’m against a subwoofer ban for a variety of reasons.
I’m not against subwoofers. I’m against noise ordinances never being enforced even if you call a complaint in and police are usually seen patrolling around town so you know there’s plenty free to respond.
Because subwoofers aren’t tools designed specifically for killing?
Probably because the vast majority people are capable of using a subwoofer responsibly.
Subwoofer ownership isn’t an explicitly stated constitutional right, so it can’t be for that reason.
Obviously, you’ve never dropped the bass.
I don’t necessarily care if my neighbor owns an AR rifle. I do care what kind of person they are if they own one, or other firearms.
Are they one of the crowd that treats firearms with the careless disregard of a fashion accessory? Do they have to accessorized it to the utmost tacticool possible? Do they have a private arsenal? Do they leave it lying around in their home or vehicle, or any other firearm for that matter, unsecured? Do they tie guns to their personal or political identity?
All of these things are negatives of varying severity, especially any failure to secure the guns and tying gun to their identity. Why those? Guns get stolen from homes and vehicles all the time and then are used in crimes while the gun owner washes their hands of the consequences of their lazy storage. Unsecured guns are used in accidental shootings by kids or others. And identity tied to firearms is just an indication of inflexibility and possible political extremism.
Are they one of the crowd that treats firearms with the careless disregard of a fashion accessory?
This. I’m fine with pro-gun people who are responsible gun owners. I feel weird about people who want to tighten regulations and have guns, but if they are responsible gun owners, then it’s fine.
Pro-gun people who treat it as a toy or as a compensation for their dick size are dangerous, and scary, but not in the cool way.
People who are for tightening regulations etc, but own guns and treat them like toys are the lowest of the low, though. Both dangerous and miserable.
“people” as in the plural of any of us are barely worth trusting with a car… And only because cars are intended for a productive purpose and many don’t have a other choice for transportation (thanks to short sighted, corrupt politicians)…
There is nobody I would trust with an AR-15
I’d be more concerned about a neighbor wearing a MAGA hat and flying a Trump 2024 flag than someone quietly owning an AR-15.
But that’s because I’m aware of the statistics.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/476409/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-weapon-types-used/
“Handguns are the most common weapon type used in mass shootings in the United States, with a total of 166 different handguns being used in 116 incidents between 1982 and December 2023. These figures are calculated from a total of 149 reported cases over this period, meaning handguns are involved in about 78 percent of mass shootings.”
Great comment and with a great source to boot :)
If they have a MAGA hat and flag you have to be careful about approaching their driveway or front door. They are fear-addicted and armed.
Thanks for backing up my position with the actual statistics. I’m aware of them too but I was too lazy to dig them up. Thanks.
People should be way more concerned about handguns but mass shootings with rifles get all the attention.
Mass shouting are 3+, but rifle shootings that makes news stories tend to be much higher 5-8+. And often times the rifle shooters are also using a handgun, so it skews the numbers a bit there too.
But really all guns and especially handguns need better control, permitting, and revocation laws.
Tbh it’s by design. It’s way easier to scare people with the big black scary call of duty gun and convince them to get on board with that, saying “no pistols are fine but those rifles that function the literal same are the issue,” then later you can try to convince people on the pistols with “actually since rifles only accounted for 500/60,000 gun deaths a year we have to ban the pistols now too.”
Except by that exact source, mass shootings with rifles are under reported and the deadliest mass shootings were done with semi automatic rifles.
“Since 1982, there has been a known total 65 mass shootings involving rifles, mostly semi-automatics. This figure is underreported though, as it excludes the multiple semi-automatic (and fully automatic) rifles used in the 2017 Las Vegas Strip massacre – the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, killing 58 and wounding 546. In fact, semi-automatic rifles were featured in four of the five deadliest mass shootings, being used in the Orlando nightclub massacre, Sandy Hook Elementary massacre and Texas First Baptist Church massacre.”
Deadliest again is not “most prevalent”. Yes, that is what gets the attention and makes everyone scared, but they are not as common as the media wants everyone to believe.
Except the stats (art and science) don’t mention that in many of the mass shootings, an AR-15 assault rifle was commonly used. Highly lethal, designed to kill as many people as possible in a short amount of time.
They actually do mention it when used, but like I say, the use is minimal compared to handguns.
AR-15 shootings get more ATTENTION when they happen which gives the impression they are more prevelant than they are.
I think this year there have been two? The woman at Joel Osteen’s church back in February who shot two people before being killed herself.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakewood_Church_shooting
And this idiot who shot up a fleeing car back in April, injuring nobody. Police couldn’t even find property damage.
Had to google for that one. Nobody got hurt so lower press coverage.
I just categorize my concerns to semi-autos; size is irrelevant. Australia went so far as to ban just about all of them, even though that’s a very broad category.
