Thread by @ndrewwhitehead

With yet another tragic mass shooting, the #GunControl debate will yet again take center stage.

One reason for the intractable nature of this debate? Deeply held moral & religious schemas like Christian nationalism. 1/8

@LandonSchnabel @PaulHRosenberg @jackmjenkins @JackSmithIV

Our working paper shows that Americans who mandate a close, symbiotic relationship btw Christianity & civil society are deeply opposed to federal gun control legislation. 2/8

Find the working paper here: osf.io/preprints/soca…
@socarxiv

Understanding Christian nationalism, as a particular religio-cultural style, is important to understanding opposition to gun control.

Gun rights, according to the Christian nationalism framework, are a God-given right. The US Constitution & 2nd Amendment are God-inspired. 3/8

Thus, any perceived attack on or restriction of the 2nd Amendment is perceived as an attack on the Christian God.

Furthermore, for Christian nationalists gun violence has less to do w/ the gun itself, & more to do w/ how the US no longer relies on the Christian God. 4/8

For Christian nationalists, solving social problems like gun violence should rely on promoting Christianity. To them, gun control laws do not address the perceived underlying moral decline of the nation. 5/8

This may be one reason why it seems both sides of the gun control debate are speaking past one another.

Attempts to reform gun laws must attend to these deeply held cultural & religious identities. 6/8

This is especially true b/c we find Christian nationalism operates similarly across religious traditions. It doesn't matter if you're Evangelical, Catholic, or Mainline: Christian nationalism is strongly associated with opposing gun control. 7/8

The fact that American religion is exceptionally intense compared to other countries may help explain our exceptionalism in terms of guns & mass shootings.

The US consistently turns to "Christian values" instead of gun control to end mass shootings. 8/8

And the most heartbreaking thing? I knew back when we started writing this paper (2/22/18) soon after the Parkland shooting that our examples of mass casualty school shootings would most likely be out of date way too soon. So sad.