The Dark Side of Safety: A Call for a More Thorough Consideration of Racism and Collective Power Motivations in the Social Psychology of Firearms.

This article examines the symbolic role of firearms in the United States through a social psychological lens, emphasizing how concerns about personal safety are intertwined with collective power motives shaped by historical and ongoing racism. It situates firearm ownership and policy within a long history of racialized power dynamics, highlighting how White Americans historically used guns and gun laws to maintain group dominance over Indigenous peoples and Black Americans, while Black Americans have at times used firearms as a means of collective empowerment and resistance against racial oppression, such as during Jim Crow-era violence. The paper argues that contemporary motivations for gun ownership—often framed as self-protection—also reflect group-level concerns about in-group status and power, which differ qualitatively by race due to structural inequalities and cultural narratives. It further discusses how these collective power dynamics complicate efforts to address gun safety and policy, underscoring the need for social psychological research to integrate historical and racial contexts to better understand firearm attitudes and behaviors in the U.S.