👀 Peep our recent profile in The Guardian.
Research is at the core of our process and campaigns at Project Unloaded. From who our campaigns reach to where our campaigns live and what they say, research backs our every step. And not only do we conduct research with partners – our Youth Council conducts their own research too. Below you’ll find some of the data that backs our work and inspires us every day.
In 2019, our partners at Influence SG led a research initiative to explore young people’s knowledge, attitude and behaviors toward guns. They found that the vast majority of young people believed the myth that having a gun would make them safer and most were open to owning a gun in the future. But there’s hope: About half of these teens said they’d benefit from knowing more about the benefits and risks of gun ownership. And in later research, teens moved against the idea of guns increasing safety after exposure to facts about gun risks.
In 2022, Project Unloaded partnered with Global Strategy Group to survey 1,000 Americans, ages 13 through 25, to understand how young people, particularly Gen Z, think about guns and gun violence. The resulting report, Gen Z Gun and Culture Insights, details the findings, including:
The survey echoes past research showing that most young people believe that having a gun makes them safer. But after reading simple messages on the risks of using guns, young people shifted away from the notion that guns make them safer by nearly 20 points. The magnitude of the shift is not seen in surveys of older populations. This change happened across all demographics – even young people in homes with guns shifted their views.
The survey highlights how deeply gun violence impacts young people and how willing they are to listen to the facts and change their views based on the data. By empowering young people with the facts on guns, we can correct the widespread myth that guns make us safer and reduce rates of gun ownership among future generations, which will save countless lives.
In 2023, Project Unloaded partnered with the research firm AHZUL to understand how multicultural teens in communities often impacted by violence view guns and safety issues where they live. Through both qualitative and quantitative rounds of research, we worked to understand how fact-based messaging could impact teens’ views of guns and the likelihood they would own or carry them in the future. We found a significant opportunity to intervene before young people have made up their minds on guns and help them shift against using guns by sharing the facts.
In fall 2023, it was clear that primetime television lineups would change because of the ongoing labor disputes in Hollywood. Project Unloaded’s Youth Council sought to understand how the messages TV sends about guns may shift as a result of more unscripted content hitting the airwaves. To answer that question, the Youth Council reviewed 154 hours of content – half from the last week of September in 2022 and half from that same week in 2023. The result was a report titled, “Gun Smoke,” which demonstrates that while gun use on primetime network TV fell in the fall of 2023, ratings did not – proving that guns weren’t necessary to making profitable television.
The report was released via an exclusive in Variety and earned additional stories in ScreenRant and MovieGuide.
To turn the page on gun violence, we must tell a different story about guns. With your help, we can grow our work and save lives.
Sign up for Project Unloaded’s email and SMS lists