Google Proves That "Gun Control" Is Hotter Than "Gun Shops" -- A Sign Of Hope?

As Alexandra Ma notes in “Americans Are Googling ‘Gun Control’ Instead Of ‘Gun Shop'” (Huffington Post) Google just released fascinating data on how Search users reacted to the racist violence on June 17 in SC. Its newly revamped Trends tool has a rundown of the topics people searched after the tragedy. The data shows that searches for “gun control” surpassed those for “gun shop” across the United States. This is something new.

Searches for “gun shop” are usually more popular than “gun control,” according to data Google Trends averaged from the past year. But in the 72 hours following the Charleston shooting, “gun control” was the more popular search term in 45 states. Only South Dakota, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and North Carolina saw more queries for “gun shop.”

Here’s what that breakdown looks like (graphics Huffington Post)

And here’s what search data for these two terms looked like over the course of last year:

A HuffPost-YouGov poll after the mass shooting in Charleston showed that 49 percent of Americans believe now is the right time to discuss stricter gun control measures, versus 37 percent who think it’s the wrong time.

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Google Proves that “Gun Control” is Hotter than “Gun Shops” — A Sign of Hope?

Available now on Amazon