Objective
Although gun violence is a significant public health concern, many aspects of gun violence remain grossly understudied, including factors that shape firearm perceptions and beliefs. Trauma exposure and levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs) may play a role in understanding gun attitudes; however, these putative associations have not been empirically determined. The aim of the study was to investigate if cumulative trauma, specific violent trauma types (i.e., violent death, and physical, weapon, and sexual assault), and PTSS are related to more positive gun attitudes.
Method
A total of 495 adults from Amazon Mechanical Turk (18.5%) or a midwestern university (81.4%; Mage = 25.81 SD = 9.88, 59.5% female, 71.2% White) participated in the study.
Results
Cumulative trauma was associated with more progun rights beliefs but not with perceptions that guns provide protection from victimization or deter crime. Despite expectations, PTSSs were not tied to gun attitudes. In the model with the specific types of violent trauma, weapon assault was related to a stronger endorsement that guns offer protection, whereas physical assault was inversely associated with this belief. None of the four types of violent trauma nor PTSS were related to beliefs regarding gun rights or guns and crime.
Conclusion
Although PTSS was consistently unrelated to gun attitudes, cumulative trauma exposure may correspond with gun rights beliefs. There also appears to be distinctions in type of violent trauma exposure and discrete gun attitudes.
