Framing the Gun Debate

Without getting into any of the politically heated debate about guns in our country, this piece by Nate Silver offers a neutral analysis of the linguistic framing of the discussion of guns since the 1980s. It shows a large decrease in the more neutral phrases like “gun control” the 1990s, and a rise in the more polarizing phrases like “second amendment” and “gun rights,” terms rarely used in the 1980s. Essentially, he suggests that we can statistically verify the increasingly polarized nature of this debate by studying the language the two sides have used over time to frame the topic.