Gun Owners Don't Get Better Sleep, Aren't Happier: U of A Study

TUCSON, AZ — While some say gun owners sleep better at night, two studies by a University of Arizona researcher and his team found that assertion to be untrue. Those bearing arms, constitutionally speaking, don’t feel any happier than non-gun owners, the studies found.

Terrence Hill, a U of A researcher and associate sociology professor, led the research projects in an attempt to find out if gun ownership really promotes a stronger feeling of well-being versus not owning a gun.

“The question really is: Do guns make our personal lives better?” Hill said.

Hill and his team looked at the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey, comprising data collected from 1973 to 2018. Data initially appeared to indicate a positive connection between gun ownership and happiness. But once researchers delved deeper and factored marital status into the analysis, they found that gun owners were more likely to be married than non-gun owners. Researchers concluded that it was not gun ownership but rather being married that was producing the group’s happiness.

When additional variables including religion, education and race were factored in, those who didn’t own guns exhibited the same happiness levels as those who owned guns, according to the study.

“If guns do make people feel safe, secure and protected, if they are empowering, if they are contributing to feelings of pleasure, then they should promote happiness, but we don’t find any evidence of that,” Hill said. “That calls into question whether or not these are real feelings that gun owners have, or are they just part of the culture of owning a gun?”

One gun owner sub-group in the study, however, did exhibit higher happiness levels: Democrats, but that trend is declining. Hill theorized that Democrat gun owners might be happier because they are likely using guns for a recreational lifestyle, such as possibly for target shooting or similar activities, rather than owning a gun for self-defense as emphasized more by Republicans.

The other study Hill and his team conducted was based on the General Social Survey, too, but analyzed data collected between 2010 and 2018. Sleep disturbance levels were examined, and the data indicated no difference between those who didn’t own guns and those who did.

The study also analyzed how safe participants felt in their neighborhoods. When they looked at sleep disturbance levels of those living in dangerous neighborhoods, again researchers found no difference between non-gun owners and gun owners. “We found that gun ownership was no consolation for living in a dangerous neighborhood in terms of sleep disturbance outcome,” Hill said.

Hill hopes continued research on whether guns improve a person’s well-being will spur more public conversation about the role that guns play in today’s society.

“Public health research has shown that guns are associated with thousands of preventable injuries and premature deaths, and the health care costs of those injuries and deaths can reach into the billions,” Hill said. “But there’s not much research out there on the personal well-being side of owning guns. We want people to start talking more about the role of guns in people’s personal lives.”

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