Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2025-7
Depictions of Firearm Violence Perpetrators and Support for Firearm Policies: An Experimental Survey Analysis of Mental Illness and Criminal Background
We used an experimental study design with newspaper vignettes to examine how characteristics of gun violence perpetrators including mental illness and previous incarceration influence three categories of firearm policy support in a national sample of U.S. adults (N = 3,387). Depictions of mass shootings elicit greater support for firearm policies than other types such as suicides, accidents, or street-level homicides. Further, depictions of mental illness and previous incarceration increase support for policies regulating who may legally own, purchase, and possess firearms. Demographic characteristics of perpetrators such as gender and race largely do not affect public policy support, although personal characteristics of respondents themselves are predictive of support.
AlaridL. F.VegaO. L. (2010). Identity construction, self perceptions, and criminal behavior of incarcerated women. Deviant Behavior, 31(8), 704–728.
2.
AppelbaumP. S.SwansonJ. W. (2010). Law & psychiatry: Gun laws and mental illness: How sensible are the current restrictions?Psychiatric Services, 61(7), 652–654.
3.
AsencioE. K.BurkeP. J. (2011). Does incarceration change the criminal identity? A synthesis of labeling and identity theory perspectives on identity change. Sociological Perspectives, 54(2), 163–182.
4.
AzraelD.HepburnL.HemenwayD.MillerM. (2017). The stock and flow of US firearms: Results from the 2015 National Firearms Survey. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 3(5), 38–57.
5.
BaranauskasA. J.DrakulichK. M. (2018). Media construction of crime revisited: Media types, consumer contexts, and frames of crime and justice. Criminology, 56(4), 679–714.
6.
BarryC. L.StoneE. M.CrifasiC. K.VernickJ. S.WebsterD. W.McGintyE. E. (2019). Trends in public opinion on US gun laws: Majorities of gun owners and non–gun owners support a range of measures. Health Affairs, 38(10), 1727–1734.
7.
BarryC. L.WebsterD. W.StoneE.CrifasiC. K.VernickJ. S.McGintyE. E. (2018). Public support for gun violence prevention policies among gun owners and non–gun owners in 2017. American Journal of Public Health, 108(7), 878–881.
8.
BerryessaC. M.Sierra-ArevaloM.SemenzaD. C. (2022). Portrayals of gun violence victimization and public support for firearm policies: An experimental analysis. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-022-09517-x
9.
BrewB.AlaniF.LiA.WildemanC. (2022). Sticky stigma: The impact of incarceration on perceptions of personality traits and deservingness. Social Forces, 100(4), 1910–1934.
10.
BrittoS.Noga-StyronK. E. (2014). Media consumption and support for capital punishment. Criminal Justice Review, 39, 81–100.
11.
BurtonA. L.PickettJ. T.JonsonC. L.CullenF. T.BurtonV. S.Jr., (2021). Public support for policies to reduce school shootings: A moral-altruistic model. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 58(3), 269–305.
12.
BushmanB. J. (2018). Guns automatically prime aggressive thoughts, regardless of whether a “good guy” or “bad guy” holds the gun. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(6), 727–733.
13.
ButtonK. S.IoannidisJ.MokryszC.NosekB. A.FlintJ.RobinsonE. S.MunafòM. R. (2013). Power failure: Why small sample size undermines the reliability of neuroscience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(5), 365–376.
14.
CampbellJ. C.GlassN.SharpsP. W.LaughonK.BloomT. (2007). Intimate partner homicide: Review and implications of research and policy. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 8(3), 246–269.
15.
CarlsonJ. (2015a). Citizen-protectors: The everyday politics of guns in an age of decline. London: Oxford University Press.
CarterP. M.LosmanE.RocheJ. S.MalaniP. N.KullgrenJ. T.SolwayE.KirchM.SingerD.WaltonM. A.ZeoliA. M.CunninghamR. M. (2022). Firearm ownership, attitudes, and safe storage practices among a nationally representative sample of older US adults age 50 to 80. Preventive Medicine, 156, 106955.
18.
ChoeJ. Y.TeplinL. A.AbramK. M. (2008). Perpetration of violence, violent victimization, and severe mental illness: Balancing public health concerns. Psychiatric Services, 59(2), 153–164.
CookP. J.LudwigJ.BragaA. A. (2005). Criminal records of homicide offenders. JAMA, 294(5), 598–601.
22.
CrifasiC. K.WardJ. A.McGintyE. E.WebsterD. W.BarryC. L. (2021). Public opinion on gun policy by race and gun ownership status. Preventive Medicine, 149, 106607.
DonohueJ. J. (2022). Increasing murders but overall lower crime suggests a growing gun problem. American Journal of Public Health, 112(5), 700–702.
26.
DuxburyS. W.FrizzellL. C.LindsayS. L. (2018). Mental illness, the media, and the moral politics of mass violence: The role of race in mass shootings coverage. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 55(6), 766–797.
FeingoldZ. R. (2021). The stigma of incarceration experience: A systematic review. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 27(4), 550.
29.
FilindraA.KaplanN. (2017). Testing theories of gun policy preferences among Blacks, Latinos, and Whites in America. Social Science Quarterly, 98(2), 413–428.
30.
FunderD. C.OzerD. J. (2019). Evaluating effect size in psychological research: Sense and nonsense. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 2(2), 156–168.
31.
GamsonW. A.ModiglianiA. (1989). Media discourse and public opinion on nuclear power: A constructionist approach. American Journal of Sociology, 95(1), 1–37.
GoldstickJ. E.ZeoliA.MairC.CunninghamR. M. (2019). US firearm-related mortality: National, state, and population trends, 1999–2017. Health Affairs, 38(10), 1646–1652.
34.
GrinshteynE.HemenwayD. (2019). Violent death rates in the US compared to those of the other high-income countries, 2015. Preventive Medicine, 123, 20–26.
35.
GuoL.MaysK.ZhangY.WijayaD.BetkeM. (2021). What makes gun violence a (less) prominent issue? A computational analysis of compelling arguments and selective agenda setting. Mass Communication and Society, 24(5), 651–675.
36.
HartwellS. (2004). Triple stigma: Persons with mental illness and substance abuse problems in the criminal justice system. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 15(1), 84–99.
37.
JacobsJ. B.HabermanA. (2017). 3D-printed firearms, do-it-yourself guns, & the Second Amendment. Law and contemporary problems, 80(2), 129–147.
38.
JoseR.HolmanE. A.SilverR. C. (2021). How Americans feel about guns after mass shootings: The case of the 2016 Orlando nightclub massacre. Psychology of Violence, 11(4), 354–363.
39.
KahnC. (2014). Challenging the federal prohibition on gun possession by nonviolent felons. South Texas Law Review, 55, 113.
40.
KaufmanE. J.WiebeD. J.XiongR. A.MorrisonC. N.SeamonM. J.DelgadoM. K. (2021). Epidemiologic trends in fatal and nonfatal firearm injuries in the US, 2009-2017. JAMA Internal Medicine, 181(2), 237–244.
41.
KimD. Y.PhillipsS. W. (2021). When COVID-19 and guns meet: A rise in shootings. Journal of Criminal Justice, 73, 101783
42.
KingS. E.SmithH. P. (2023). Reexamining modified labeling theory: A sample of incarcerated women with mental illness. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 50(10), 1565–1583.
43.
KrzywinskiM.AltmanN. (2013). Importance of being uncertain. Nature Methods, 10(9), 809–811.
44.
KuehnS.VosgerauJ. (2022). The public’s overestimation of immorality of formerly incarcerated people. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-022-09534-w
45.
LacombeM. J.HowatA. J.RothschildJ. E. (2019). Gun ownership as a social identity: Estimating behavioral and attitudinal relationships. Social Science Quarterly, 100(6), 2408–2424.
46.
LinkB. G.PhelanJ. C. (2001). Conceptualizing stigma. Annual review of Sociology, 27(1), 363–385.
47.
LizotteM. K. (2019). Authoritarian personality and gender differences in gun control attitudes. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 40(3), 385–408.
48.
LoseeJ. E.PoggeG.LipseyN. P.ShepperdJ. A. (2021). Understanding the political divide in gun policy support. In CrandallM.BonneS.BronsonJ.KesselW. (Eds), Why we are losing the war on gun violence in the United States (pp. 89–106). Springer.
49.
McGintyE. E.WebsterD. W.BarryC. L. (2013). Effects of news media messages about mass shootings on attitudes toward persons with serious mental illness and public support for gun control policies. American Journal of Psychiatry, 170(5), 494–501.
50.
McGintyE. E.WebsterD. W.JarlenskiM.BarryC. L. (2014). News media framing of serious mental illness and gun violence in the United States, 1997-2012. American Journal of Public Health, 104(3), 406–413.
51.
MeindlJ. N.IvyJ. W. (2017). Mass shootings: The role of the media in promoting generalized imitation. American Journal of Public Health, 107(3), 368–370.
52.
MerinoS. M. (2018). God and guns: Examining religious influences on gun control attitudes in the United States. Religions, 9(6), 189.
53.
MerryM. K. (2019). Angels versus devils: The portrayal of characters in the gun policy debate. Policy Studies Journal, 47(4), 882–904.
54.
MetzlJ. M.MacLeishK. T. (2015). Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms. American Journal of Public Health, 105(2), 240–249.
55.
NewmanB. J.HartmanT. K. (2019). Mass shootings and public support for gun control. British Journal of Political Science, 49(4), 1527–1553.
56.
Parham-PayneW. (2014). The role of the media in the disparate response to gun violence in America. Journal of Black Studies, 45(8), 752–768.
57.
PickettJ. T. (2019). Public opinion and criminal justice policy: Theory and research. Annual Review of Criminology, 2(1), 405–428.
58.
PritchardD.HughesK. D. (1997). Patterns of deviance in crime news. Journal of Communication, 47(3), 49–67.
RobbersM. L. (2005). The media and public perceptions of criminal justice policy issues: An analysis of Bowling for Columbine and gun control. Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 12(2), 77–95.
61.
RocheS. P.PickettJ. T.GertzM. (2016). The scary world of online news? Internet news exposure and public attitudes toward crime and justice. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 32(2), 215–236.
62.
SchildkrautJ.ElsassH. J.MeredithK. (2018). Mass shootings and the media: Why all events are not created equal. Journal of Crime and Justice, 414(3), 223–243.
63.
SemenzaD. C.BernauJ. A. (2022). Information-seeking in the wake of tragedy: An examination of public response to mass shootings using Google Search data. Sociological Perspectives, 65(1), 216–233.
64.
SemetA.AnsolabehereS. (2011). Profiling and predicting opinions on gun control: A comparative perspective on the factors underlying opinion on different gun control measures. SSRN 1884661. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1884661
65.
SiegelM.PahnM.XuanZ.RossC. S.GaleaS.KalesanB.FleeglerE.GossK. A. (2017). Firearm-related laws in all 50 US States, 1991-2016. American Journal of Public Health, 107(7), 1122–1129.
66.
SilvaJ. R.CapellanJ. A. (2019). The media’s coverage of mass public shootings in America: Fifty years of newsworthiness. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 43(1), 77–97.
67.
SilvaJ. R.Greene-ColozziE. A. (2019). Fame-seeking mass shooters in America: Severity, characteristics, and media coverage. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 48, 24–35.
SmuckerS.WilliamsJ.RamchandR.SmartR.MorralA.R.XenakisL.CharbonneauA.CherneyS. (2023). The science of gun policy: a critical synthesis of research evidence on the effects of gun policies in the United States. (RR-2088-RC). RAND Corporation
70.
StoneE. M.BarryC. L.CrifasiC. K.WebsterD. W.VernickJ. S.McGintyE. E. (2020). Support for gun policies among young adults in the US, 2017–2019. Preventive Medicine, 135, 106094.
71.
SugieN. F.TurneyK. (2017). Beyond incarceration: Criminal justice contact and mental health. American Sociological Review, 82(4), 719–743.
72.
SwansonJ. W.McGintyE. E.FazelS.MaysV. M. (2015). Mental illness and reduction of gun violence and suicide: Bringing epidemiologic research to policy. Annals of Epidemiology, 25(5), 366–376.
73.
WeissA.ChermakS. M. (1998). The news value of African-American victims: An examination of the media’s presentation of homicide. Journal of Crime and Justice, 21(2), 71–88.
74.
WhiteK.StuartF.MorrisseyS. L. (2021). Whose lives matter? Race, space, and the devaluation of homicide victims in minority communities. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 7(3), 333–349.
75.
WilsonL. C.BallmanA. D.BuczekT. J. (2016). News content about mass shootings and attitudes toward mental illness. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 93(3), 644–658.
76.
WintemuteG. J. (2015). The epidemiology of firearm violence in the twenty-first century United States. Annual Review of Public Health, 36, 5–19.
77.
WrightM. A.WintemuteG. J. (2010). Felonious or violent criminal activity that prohibits gun ownership among prior purchasers of handguns: Incidence and risk factors. Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, 69(4), 948–955.
78.
ZhangY.ShahD.FoleyJ.AbhishekA.LukitoJ.SukJ.KimS. J.SunZ.PevehouseJ.GarloughC. (2019). Whose lives matter? Mass shootings and social media discourses of sympathy and policy, 2012–2014. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 24(4), 182–202.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
