61% of Faith and Flag Conservatives Have Guns

Every few years, Pew Research Center probes the political beliefs of Americans, sorting the public into what it calls political typologies. The latest such survey, conducted in July 2021, finds the public distributed as follows...

Distribution of American adults by political typology, 2021 (from most liberal to most conservative)

  6% are Progressive Left

13% are Establishment Liberals

16% are Democratic Mainstays

10% are Outsider Left

15% are Stressed Sideliners

12% are Ambivalent Right

11% are Populist Right

  7% are Committed Conservatives

10% are Faith and Flag Conservatives

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Not surprisingly, the great majority of those in the four most conservative groups identify as Republicans, including 97 percent of Faith and Flag Conservatives. Among the four most liberal groups, the great majority identify as Democrats, including 98 percent of the Progressive Left. The group in the middle—Stressed Sideliners—is equally likely to identify as Democrat or Republican (45 percent each). This group is the most politically disconnected and votes at relatively low rates, Pew notes.  

Faith and Flag Conservatives and The Populist Right are the two groups most likely to live in a small town/rural area, at 39 and 38 percent respectively. These are also the groups most likely to have guns in their household, with 61 percent of each group reporting household gun ownership. 

Those with Progressive Left beliefs are least likely to live in a small town or rural area (13 percent). Together with the Outsider Left group, they are least likely to have guns in their household, with only 26 percent reporting gun ownership. 

Source: Pew Research Center, Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology