Are Your Beliefs About Gun Safety in Tune With America?

In 2015 alone, there were 372 mass shootings, 64 school shootings and over 13,000 people were killed by firearms in the United States. In the wake of the recent Orlando massacre, one of the largest mass shootings in US history, the debate on gun control is once again capturing the attention of many Americans.

Although a good chunk of the debate is revolving around terrorism (and the US spends billions of dollars each year on the "war against terror"), the number of terrorism-related deaths is actually very small compared to the death toll resulting from ordinary gun crime. What is particularly interesting is that although mass shootings are on the rise in the United States, public opinion on gun control has remained relatively stable.

Sometimes, when a salient media event such as a mass shooting occurs, the public sentiment temporarily shifts, but then often reverts back to its original state. Interestingly, despite the salience of the Orlando massacre, the Senate voted down four new gun control proposals earlier this week.

So what factors determine how people form beliefs and judgments about important societal issues such as gun safety? My colleague Adam Pearson and I are particularly interested in studying the social dynamics that govern norms and attitude formation around key social issues such as gun control.

In fact, to find out more about how different people think and feel about gun safety we developed a unique, interactive, and anonymous quiz that will allow you to compare your personal beliefs about gun safety with the views of fellow Americans as well as with the expert opinion of social scientists who study gun violence.

To participate and find out where you stand, you can take the quiz here.

You will be able to read off your personal result right away and the quiz is mobile-friendly. After we've gathered a large amount of data, we will follow-up with another PT post detailing the full results and what they mean for our understanding of how people form attitudes about important societal issues such as gun violence.