The Universal Pursuit of Safety and the Demand for (Lethal, Non-Lethal or No) Guns

This paper examines the motivations and beliefs underlying divergent views on firearm ownership in the United States through a large-scale survey of lethal firearm owners and non-owners, combined with randomized information interventions. The authors show that both groups share a common objective—safety—but differ in perceived private and social costs of lethal firearm ownership. Experimental treatments provide information about private costs and about non-lethal firearms, with and without endorsement. Information about non-lethal firearms increases willingness to pay for such alternatives and support for policies encouraging them, with more persistent effects than information about costs. The findings are interpreted through a framework in which households share a demand for safety but differ in perceived safety production possibilities and trade-offs between protective benefits and harms.