Citation

Wei FYF, Wang YK, Lowe D. Coll. Student J. 2023; 57(2): 183-194.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Project Innovation)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This survey study first investigates whether American college students' favoritism in gun control can be explained by people's victimization beliefs, environmental anxiety, and television consumption, and then explore the potential racial and gender difference in gun control in relation to the previously mentioned variables. The results showed that only victimization beliefs and environmental anxiety are significantly associated with college students' view of gun control. When college students have a high level of environmental anxiety, they are more likely to favor gun control to limit the villains' violent use of guns. When college students present a high level of victimization beliefs, they are more like to oppose gun control to convenience their individual use of guns for self-protection. In comparison to Caucasian student participants, African American female students, in general, are the most vulnerable social group because they displayed high levels of environmental anxiety and victimization beliefs simultaneously, meaning that they are likely to face the decisional dilemma between favor and oppose gun control and potentially swing their public opinions. Potential explanations are discussed accordingly.

Language: en