Approval of the National Rifle Association and political violence

Approval of the National Rifle Association and political violence

Findings from a nationally representative survey

  • by Wintemute GJ, Li Y, Shev AB, Robinson SL, Tomsich EA, Wright MA, Pear VA.

Quick Summary

  • Americans who strongly or very strongly approve of the NRA are substantially more likely than those who do not approve to view political violence as justified, and they are more willing to engage in political violence themselves.

Despite its recent scandals, the NRA may remain capable of mobilizing large numbers of people who are armed and willing to use violence to advance political objectives. At the same time, NRA approvers who reject political violence might be uniquely credible messengers in efforts to create a population-wide culture of non-acceptance for political violence.

-Garen Wintemute, director of CVP, professor, and lead author

About the Research

FINDINGS IN BRIEF

  • In mid-2023, 27% of American adults strongly or very strongly approved of the NRA.
  • Perhaps surprisingly, only half of these “approvers” (but a higher proportion than of non-approvers) reported personal ownership of firearms (approvers 49.8%, non-approvers 15.5%).
  • These approvers were more than twice as likely as non-approvers to view violence as usually or always justified to advance at least 1 political objective (approvers 44.0%, non-approvers 21.5%).
  • Approvers more often considered it very or extremely likely that they would shoot someone to advance a political objective (approvers 4.2%, non-approvers 0.8%).
  • Approvers were more frequently willing than non-approvers to engage in lone-actor political violence (approvers 10.6%, non-approvers 1.9%).
  • Approvers were more likely than non-approvers to agree with expressions of authoritarianism, such as “having a strong leader for America is more important than having a democracy” (approvers 23.6%, non-approvers 10.9%).
  • Approvers, more frequently than non-approvers, registered strong agreement on scales measuring racism, homonegativity, transphobia, xenophobia, hostile sexism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism.

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

The NRA is one of the most widely known social movement organizations in the United States, and its sphere of influence extends beyond firearm owners. Those facts make these findings particularly concerning. It is important to recognize the continued potential importance of the NRA as a contributor to risk for political violence in the US. These findings and the NRA’s known ability to generate political activity among its supporters should be considered in formulating plans to prevent political violence.

METHODS

Findings are from Wave 2 of a nationally representative annual cohort survey, conducted online May 18 to June 8, 2023. Participants were members of the Ipsos KnowledgePanel. There were 8,361 respondents for this analysis.

Citation

Wintemute GJ, Li Y, Shev AB, Robinson SL, Tomsich EA, Wright MA, Pear VA. Approval of the National Rifle Association and political violence: findings from a nationally representative survey. Injury Epidemiology. 2026 May 14.

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Primary Category

Political Violence

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Research