Peter Aronow on the Disconnect between Public Opinion and Gun Control

January 19, 2016

ISPS Faculty Resident Peter Aronow and co-author Benjamin Miller (PhD candidate in Political Science at Yale) have published a new paper in The Lancet, “Policy Misperceptions and Support for Gun Control Legislation.”

Looking at public opinion surveys they find a basic disconnect between gun laws and public knowledge: while there is overwhelming public support for universal background checks when purchasing a gun, a large percentage of the public mistakenly believe these laws are already in place.

An editorial in The Lancet, “Gun Violence in America: A National Crisis,” highlights Aronow and Miller’s research.