Guns and the conservative mind.

[DanTex]

Remember the study several years back about how liberal and conservative minds differ? Part of the conclusion was that conservatives tend to be driven by "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity". It was perfect for that time period, with the Iraq war, "freedom fries", and the "Decider".

This study came to mind again recently when I was perusing some right-wing pro-gun propaganda, because gun control is an issue where the right-wing arguments really line up almost perfectly with these psychological traits. This may help explain why liberals tend to strongly favor gun control, and why conservatives tend to be strongly opposed.

The "fear and aggression" part is, of course, the most obvious, with the vigilante fantasies and the exaggeration of defensive gun uses. And, almost as obviously, dogmatism and the NRA go hand in hand, as they oppose basically every single gun control idea offhand, regardless of how slight the imposition on gun owners or how great the potential for reducing gun violence.

But most interesting is the "intolerance of ambiguity" as applied to the gun debate. For instance, conservatives are likely to think that the world is split into "good" and "bad" people. Good people don't commit crimes, and bad people don't follow laws. Therefore gun control will only affect good people, and bad people will still have guns. To most liberals, this theory will sound childish and simplistic, but that's because we are able to understand the nuances, for example, that bad situations can arise among "good" people, and the outcome is invariably worse when guns are around.

You'll also see conservatives object that gun control will never be able prevent 100% of criminals from getting guns, whereas liberals will typically understand that nothing is 100%, but reducing availability of guns goes a long way towards reducing crime and gun violence. Crime is a complex, nuanced issue, with many factors, and the ability to comfortably accept that there are no easy or foolproof answers is precisely what allows liberals to clearly see the need to impose stronger, yet imperfect, regulations on guns.