A nationally representative survey of 2000 American adults shows broad support for prohibiting gun-possession on private land without the landowner's explicit permission. Many states have laws which permit concealed weapon carry unless explicitly prohibited by the landowner, but our survey suggests statistically-significant majorities would prefer “no carry” defaults with regard to homeowners, employers, and retailers. While respondents who are Republican, male, or gun owners are more likely to support “carry” defaults, we find that the majoritarian rejection of “carry” defaults does not tend to vary by region or state. However, our survey does find majority support for a default right to possess guns in rented property and on an employer's parking lot. Respondents across all contexts also report substantial ignorance or misinformation about the law. Landowners who don't know or mistakenly believe that concealed carry is, by default, prohibited on their land may be less able to protect themselves by explicitly prohibiting such third-party possession.
See, e.g., Minn. Stat. Ann. § 624.714 (West 2019).
24.
See, e.g., Miss. Code. Ann. §45-9-51 (West 2019).
25.
D.C. Code Ann. § 22-4503.02 (West 2019).
26.
A more detailed explanation can be found in the online appendix. YouGov has also been used in, I.Ayres and F.Vars, “Gun Owners Support the Right Not to Bear Arms,”Emory Law Review (forthcoming).
27.
The full survey can be found in the Online Appendix.
28.
The survey also randomized the order in which vignettes were presented and subjects were randomized into two groups: in one group, “No” appeared first throughout the survey, and in the other, “Yes” appeared first (with “I don't know” always appearing at the end).
29.
Analogous results by state are available in Online Appendix Table A4. We also present similar tables for beliefs about what the law is by region and state in Online Appendix Tables A5 and A6, respectively.
30.
Appendix Table A7 presents linear regressions testing for treatment effects on each question — both with and without controls — and finds statistically significant treatment effects. Specifically, the “explicit consent” group was 10.5 percentage points less likely than the “No Trespassing” to say that the law should by default allow such hunting and 33 percentage points less likely to believe that that their state had such a law. This aspect of the experiments shows that altering rules can materially impact public support for the law. See Ayres, supra note 5.
31.
60.8% of individuals said businesses should have immunity if they prevented individuals from carrying guns, while 61.1% said businesses should have immunity if they allowed individuals to carry guns. These differences were not statistically significant (p. > .8).
32.
The landowner-frame made respondents less likely to support tenants carrying firearms in rented property and the “carry” default for hunting on private land. See Appendix Table A7.
33.
A.Gangitano and S.Wong, “Here Are the Gun Policies for America's Largest Retailers,”Hill, September7, 2019.
34.
Id.
35.
M.Corkery, “Retailers Walk Thin Line by Asking, Not Telling, Shoppers Not to Carry Guns,”New York Times, September9, 2019.
36.
See, e.g., J.R.Miller, “Tenant Allegedly Shot Landlord in the Head Over $30 Rent Hike,”New York Post, March8, 2018.
37.
District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, (2008).
38.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc., et al. v. City of New York, et. al., 590 U.S. __, (2020).
39.
Concealed Deadly Weapons Legal: Hearing on H.B. 102 Before the H. State Affairs Standing Comm., 2003 Leg., 23th Sess., (Ak. April 8, 2003) (statement by Lauree Hugonin, Executive Director of ANDVSA).
