THE murder of 12 people at the Naval Yard in Washington DC last week was both very familiar and very strange. Familiar in the sense that mass shootings have become part of life in the US. Strange in the sense that the calls for action that usually follow such events were muted, with President Obama鈥檚 reiterated support for gun control seeming half-hearted.
It seems the failure to enact any legislation after the shootings at Sandy Hook elementary school has emasculated the gun control lobby: if the massacre of 20 young children can鈥檛 shift the argument, nothing will. As The Washington Post concluded: 鈥淭he issue, for the foreseeable future, is settled: .鈥�
One oft-stated explanation is that the gun lobby has quashed federal funding for research into firearms violence. President Obama tried to put that right after Sandy Hook. But the new funding he ordered is a modest $10 million and it comes with strings: using the findings of any resulting research to advocate gun control would be a crime (see 鈥�The doctor treating the US gun epidemic鈥�).
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Perhaps that will force gun control advocates to think harder about what they would do with such findings. We know that on 鈥渃ulture war鈥� issues, evidence alone won鈥檛 win over die-hard opponents 鈥� climate change being a prime example. Simply laying out anti-gun evidence, however forcefully and eloquently, may not only fail to change gun enthusiasts鈥� minds, but could cause them to dig their heels in further.
Instead, gun control advocates could learn from climate activists who are devising new strategies to win over the hearts and minds of doubters. That means finding ways to convey the issues that don鈥檛 instantly clash with the cherished values of those they are trying to persuade (see 鈥�Climate science: Why the world won鈥檛 listen鈥�).
Rather than make the classic mistake of assuming that evidence alone will carry the day, gun control advocates need clever communication strategies to shift the debate. If they don鈥檛 develop them, gun control will not only be dead 鈥� it will be buried, too.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淕un control is dead but not yet buried鈥�
