Analysis code for assessing the relationship between gun ownership and fear of mass shootings

Rationale: Gun sales spike after mass shooting incidents. As firearm presence is associated with numerous health and safety risks, it is imperative to understand what catalyzes gun ownership. Despite evidence that Americans’ fear of mass shootings is increasing at a pace that exceeds their likelihood of victimization, the relationship between fear of mass shootings and gun ownership has received minimal attention.
Objective: The current study examines group differences in fear of mass shootings and openness to gun ownership. Specifically, it is hypothesized that (1) fear of mass shootings will increase openness to future firearm ownership among non-owners, (2) gun-owners will be more afraid of mass shootings than non-owners, and (3) protective owners will be more afraid than non-protective owners.
Methods: This paper uses Wave 26 of Pew Research Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel (n=1,968).
Results: Binary logistic regression analyses indicate that among non-gun-owners, fear of mass shootings decreases openness to ownership. Ordinal logistic regression analyses indicate that while fear of mass shootings does not differ between gun-owners and non-owners, protective gun-owners are more afraid than non-protective owners.
Conclusions: Combined with prior research, these findings suggest that protective gun-owners, non-protective gun-owners, and non-owners have distinct views of the relationship between guns and mass shootings and are motivated to acquire firearms by different processes. Additional longitudinal work is needed to confirm these findings and clarify the role of causal attributions.

缘由：大规模枪击事件后枪支销售激增。鉴于枪支的存在与众多健康与安全风险相关联，深入理解催化枪支拥有行为的原因显得尤为迫切。尽管有证据表明，美国人对于大规模枪击事件的恐惧程度正在以超过其受害可能性的速度增长，但大规模枪击事件恐惧与枪支拥有之间的关系却鲜有关注。目标：本研究旨在探讨大规模枪击事件恐惧与枪支拥有意愿之间的群体差异。具体而言，假设（1）大规模枪击事件的恐惧将增加非枪支拥有者对未来枪支拥有的开放性，（2）枪支拥有者相较于非枪支拥有者将更为恐惧大规模枪击事件，（3）具有保护意识的枪支拥有者将比无保护意识的枪支拥有者更为恐惧。方法：本文采用皮尤研究中心全国代表性美国趋势调查（Pew Research Center's nationally representative American Trends Panel）第26次调查波（n=1,968）。结果：二元逻辑回归分析显示，在非枪支拥有者中，对大规模枪击事件的恐惧降低了其拥有枪支的意愿。有序逻辑回归分析表明，尽管枪支拥有者与非枪支拥有者之间的大规模枪击事件恐惧程度无显著差异，但具有保护意识的枪支拥有者比无保护意识的枪支拥有者更为恐惧。结论：结合先前的研究，这些发现表明，具有保护意识的枪支拥有者、无保护意识的枪支拥有者和非枪支拥有者对枪支与大规模枪击事件之间关系的看法存在显著差异，且他们通过不同的途径被激发去获取枪支。需要进一步的长时序研究来验证这些发现并阐明因果归因的作用。