KU professor writes book on gun ownership predicting political behaviors

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) -New research from a University of Kansas political science professor shows gun ownership may be able to predict political behaviors.

The Gun Gap takes a look at two different groups - those who own a firearm, and those who don’t.

Mark Joslyn found those who own guns tend to share similar views.

“We talk a lot about gender gaps, age gaps, differences between education groups, but one big group we don’t discuss at all is gun owners versus non gun owners and the differences between their political behaviors and attitudes.”

Joslyn says his motivation came from the 2016 election when guns were a popular political topic.

“Post election analysis did not include any analysis of gun owners versus non owners and how they voted, were they important in particularly in battleground states and those battleground states are the same today and we still don’t hear anything about this group.”

His research found gun owners are far more likely to turnout to the polls on election day and when they do, they typically vote republican.

“There’s a pretty big difference between the likelihood of a gun owner voting for republican versus a non gun owner but what you find in a group of gun owners, say you find someone that just bought a gun for security reasons versus one who has had one for years and years like maybe has 10 or 15 of them there’s a big gap of the likelihood of voting republican.”

Josylyn says the more guns a person owns, the more likely they are to vote entirely republican.

“It’s not just about a gun owner that buys a gun but current owners buying more guns increases the likelihood that they’re going to vote republican not just at presidential level but down the ticket as well.”

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