Adeola Adeyemo
There is a common narrative among gun owners and gun rights advocates about the media’s portrayal of gun ownership in America, and that is: The Media doesn’t give an accurate representation for gun owners. Because guns, in most cases, are associated with violence and death, people who choose to own such weapons often get the brunt of the media’s attention as an immoral and irresponsible group.
Lots of media reports take a generally simplistic view of the gun debate. One side consists of people who are advocates of gun control laws that would save lives and reduce the incidence of mass shootings across the country. The other side has the Republicans and gun owners who oppose the creation of such a bill.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death in America. Assaults by firearm kill about 13,000 people in the US each year, which translates to a roughly 1-in-315 lifetime chance of death from gun violence. Mass shootings, when they occur, bring to the fore these gory statistics as well as renewed calls for gun control laws. The biggest impact of gun ownership on American society is mass shootings and the figures keep rising.
In 2015, some 333 mass shootings left 367 people dead and 1,328 injured. The statistics rose in 2016 to 383 mass shootings, 456 deaths, and 1,537 injuries. In 2017, there were 346 mass shootings that led to 437 deaths and 1,802 injuries.
While these statistics are true and gory, gun owners and advocates would rather see more depiction of the positive side of owning firearms in the media. This includes mentioning that Americans use firearms in successful defensive gun uses about 2.5 million times a year according to a study by Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck. Others could be home and business protection, a sense of security, prevention of rapes, murders, robberies, assaults and dozens of other crimes, usually without firing a shot.
At the most basic level, gun owners and non-owners disagree on the extent to which gun violence is a problem in the U.S. as well as the impact that ease of access to legal guns has on gun violence. According to a research by Pewsocialtrends, half of Americans describe gun violence as a very big problem in the United States, but the perceptions of gun owners and those who don’t own guns differ considerably. While a majority of those who do not own guns (59%) see gun violence as a major problem in the country today, a third of adults who own guns say this is a very big problem.
This difference in view is ultimately reflected in the media’s portrayal of gun owners as a direct reflection of people’s attitudes and behaviors involving guns. Doug Downs, an associate professor in Montana State University’s Department of English, spotlights other problems with the way gun owners are portrayed in a study published by the journal Written Communication. He found that Newspapers appear to be “silencing perspectives on gun ownership that would show it more favorably than do the frames of a cosmopolitan worldview”.
