Religion and guns: Studies find faith linked to lower devotion to firearms

Early results from the 2014 Baylor Religion Survey found that the more gun owners rated themselves as being moderately or very religious, the less likely they were to be attached to their weapons as sources of power in such areas as respect, safety and self-confidence.

The survey also found that while people who were moderate church attenders were more likely to feel empowered by owning guns, attachment levels dropped for people who attended services weekly or more, Baylor sociologists F. Carson Mencken and Paul Froese reported.

One area where religion was associated with greater attachment to guns was in images of the divine. White respondents who were more likely to view God as angry and judgmental reported greater attachment to their guns.

Overall, however, the results tended to puncture the popular image that “religious people are really into guns,” Froese noted in an interview. “Somebody who is very religious is not going to be as attached to a physical object” that is not an overtly religious symbol.