Asian Americans & Gun Ownership

By John | Thursday, December 20, 2012 | 8 Comments

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As a political junkie, I am a big fan of number cruncher and prognosticator Nate Silver of the New York Times and his Five Thirty Eight blog. With the tragic massacre in Newtown, Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary School, there has been a raging debate nationally and online about the issue of gun ownership and gun control.

In Silver’s latest blog post, he analyzes gun ownership based on political affiliation and references a 2008 national exit poll and concludes: “Whether someone owns a gun is a more powerful predictor of a person’s political party than her gender, whether she identifies as gay or lesbian, whether she is Hispanic, whether she lives in the South or a number of other demographic characteristics.” For some reason, the 2012 national exit poll did not include the question of gun ownership, but from the 2008 data, gun ownership by race and political affiliation breaks down as this:

Personally, I am not surprised. To be honest, I do not know any Asian Americans who own a gun. From what I recall, I’ve personally fired rifles at summer camp as a kid for target shooting and did enjoy it a little bit – especially the small brass casings afterwards and seeing some of the deformed lead bullets after target shooting. In retrospect, I’m kind of surprised they let kids in the middle school age range in Massachusetts this kind of activity. The one gun owner I know in the San Francisco Bay Area is a white friend of mine who happens to be a Libertarian.

And here is why I am not surprised – most Asian Americans or their roots are from the post-1965 immigration reform era, and most Asian Americans in absolute numbers immigrated in the U.S. in the past twenty years. Civilian gun ownership in countries such as China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, etc. is essentially illegal. Generally, gun laws or ownership in most of the world outside of the United States are very restrictive.

Many have noted that the given America’s frontier culture and strong emphasis on individualism, that it’s no surprise that the United States has always had a strong gun culture, from the very roots of establishing the Second Amendment in our Constitution. Asian immigrants who naturalized as Americans and consequently their kids, never grew up with or were instilled with the concept of gun ownership nor practiced the tradition of hunting (and since most Asian Americans live in urban areas, are not necessarily exposed and then adopt hunting as a sport or hobby).

Photo credit: mr.smashy via photopin cc
Chart image derived from FiveThirtyEight

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ahmed-Sanchez-De-La-Cruz-Kim/58700922 Ahmed Sanchez De La Cruz Kim

Asians are a hard group to study regarding gun culture. I know quite a few who own guns (from many groups, like the Hmong, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, etc.)

Generally speaking, its’ true in some ways that our stereotypical mentality towards guns is different from Mainstream America, but it’s not extremely dissimilar or hard to understand.

There’s kind of too many examples of people for, against or neutral towards firearms. The people I know are mostly hunters, and a few own it for personal protection.

There is a firearm hunting culture among some Asian groups (including some Chinese) so we can’t say it doesn’t exist. Some Asian groups also practiced conscription in their native countries, so chances are, some of them have military training or some type of basic firearm training. It may not be a gun culture per se, but it’s kind of close. Also, a lot of the AAs who were born and raised in the States, many of them do take on the social values and norms of their environment, including an attitude (for, against or neutral) towards gun ownership (one way or another, it rubs off on you).

Sometimes, it’s really a matter of personality. I have relatives who aren’t fond of guns but they have used and carried them before (long story short…it was military-related). Some people I know who are ok or excited with guns had never used them.
A_Lee

My uncle, 100% Taiwanese, is a card-carrying member of the NRA, and has about ten guns, a mix of rifles and handguns. His son is in the US military. I also know quite a few Koreans who own guns, and a couple Vietnamese. Two of my Taiwanese classmates, who moved to the US later, also have guns.

It’s a little lazy to say that because civilian gun ownership is heavily restricted in the home country, we wouldn’t take a liking to guns here. For one, military conscription means every male is proficient with firearms. Also, the Hawaiian gun ranges are filled with Japanese tourists.

Speaking for myself, I don’t own any guns, but I plan to change that after I leave Massachusetts.

Also, while “whether someone owns a gun is a more powerful predictor of a person’s political party than her gender, whether she identifies as gay or lesbian, whether she is Hispanic, whether she lives in the South or a number of other demographic characteristics”, it isn’t a more powerful predictor than being African-American.
http://www.8asians.com/author/ancientone95131/ jeffat8asians

“To be honest, I do not know any Asian Americans who own a gun.”

My father has owned a gun for a long time. He’s handled them since he was a teenager, as he had to use shotguns and rifles on guard duty against Huk raids when he was going to high school in the Philippines. Never took me shooting, though. My uncle has said to me that he has willed me his shotgun, pistol, and rolex watch. Kind of a weird combination for an heirloom, but who am I to say no!

Many Korean store owners were seen with guns during the Rodney King riots in an effort to protect their shops.

Personally, I have never felt motivated to own gun.
timat8asians

I wonder if that has something to do with Taiwanese being required to do military service. Both my parents told me they had learned to use guns during their military service in Taiwan. But they never owned guns in the U.S.
mingzi

I was a stereotypical “nerdy” Asian who ended up going into a tech field and a high salary job. And I own a rifle and a handgun. I think it’s the duty of every human alive to know how to handle the contemporary weapon of his/her day. Hunting is fun. Target shooting is fun. But I’m not too invested in its politics. If they outlaw all guns one day, I wouldn’t care much.
Tony Wu

I considered purchasing a gun, but then I realized that I have no interest in shooting, and it just isn’t worth the cost. It would have been something that I bought and felt good about for awhile and then forgot about and eventually probably sold.

I think the way that guns are privileged in our society is absurd. It’s absurd that the government can’t do research on the health consequences of guns, and it’s absurd that in Florida, doctors can’t even give patients advice on safe storage of guns when there’s young children around the house. Since deciding that I don’t want a gun, I’ve become a lot more cynical towards the mentality of people who have guns and I generally want to be around people who find them as alien and disgusting as I do.
fangkuai

I used to feel that way too, that guns were just for weird white rednecks. But then I found a burglar in my home one day.
FabiusMaximus

I know Koreans have guns for sure, you ever see LA riot footage? Shoooot, those brothers were sniping those filthy looters @ 1000 yards.

8 Asians