Citation

Barry CL, Bandara S, Fowler EF, Baum L, Gollust SE, Niederdeppe J, Hendricks AK. Health Aff. (Hope) 2020; 39(2): 327-333.

Affiliation

Alene Kennedy Hendricks is an assistant scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management and assistant director of the Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Project HOPE - The People-to-People Health Foundation)

DOI

10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01102

PMID

32011931

Abstract

Gun-related deaths are on the rise in the US, and following recent mass shootings, gun policy has emerged as an issue in the 2020 election cycle. Political advertising is an increasingly important tool for candidates seeking office to communicate their policy priorities. Over $6 billion was spent on political ads in the 2016 election cycle, and spending in the 2020 cycle is expected to be even higher. Tracking gun-related political advertising over time can offer critical insights into how candidates view the salience of gun policy in the context of the 2020 election and beyond. We analyzed the coverage of guns in over fourteen million candidate-related television ad airings for presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative races over four election cycles: 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018. The share of candidate-related ad airings that referred to guns increased from 1 percent in the 2012 cycle to over 8 percent in the 2018 cycle. Pro-gun rights content dominated but dropped from 86 percent of airings mentioning guns in the 2012 cycle to 45 percent in the 2018 cycle. Advertising in favor of gun regulation and against the National Rifle Association increased over time. These shifts offer insights into how gun issues are being framed in the 2020 election cycle.

Language: en

Keywords

Access to care; Firearms; Geographic variation; Government programs and policies; Guns; Health policy; Markets; Media; Political advertising; Politics; Public health; Regulation; Second Amendment; Violence