State-level trends in the total weekly size of gun-related marches, 2017–2019
Abstract
Does protest spur the government to act at the regional or local level? Gun control in the United States offers a promising case for studying this question, due to considerable variation in both protest and policymaking activity following the mass shooting in Parkland, FL in early 2018. We use an original weekly panel dataset of progress on gun control and pro-gun legislation in all states between 2017 and 2019, paired with weekly protest march data from the Crowd Counting Consortium, to determine whether or not protest spurred state governments to act on gun policy. We find that marches advocating gun control are associated with an increased likelihood of legislative movement on gun control, though they do not appear to discourage action that loosens gun laws. On the other side, pro-gun marches do not seem to have the desired effect.