Are you Packing? It's not Just About Lunch Anymore: Perceptions of Guns in National Parks

Over the course of the last several years, national parks in the United States have welcomed unprecedented numbers of visitors. As national parks remain popular places to frequent, research has rarely focused on individuals’ perceptions of crime and safety in these locations. This is especially true regarding individuals’ views of guns, which became legal within the National Park System in 2010. The current study surveyed 1,500 MTurk users who visited at least one national park in 2019, 2020, and 2021 about their perceptions regarding safety and gun possession while inside national park boundaries. Over 75% of respondents did not know it was legal to carry a gun in a national park. Less than half said they thought it should be illegal, however. Several factors, such as being bothered by seeing someone carry, perceptions of safety related to more people and rangers carrying, approval of people carrying in other “sensitive” locations, and if they had seen someone carry in a national park, influenced individual perceptions on whether or not gun possession within national parks should be legal. Policy implications regarding gun perceptions and impacts on national parks will be discussed.