Gun Purchases Research Articles

Association of racism experience with gun purchase during COVID-19: Evidence from a national survey in the United States

ObjectiveConcurrent with a substantial surge in gun purchases among Americans during COVID-19, there was an escalation of racism and hate crimes in the United States. Despite this disturbing trend, little is known about whether and the extent to which racism experience is linked to gun purchase during the pandemic. This study aims to examine the association between experience of racial discrimination and gun purchase among Americans during COVID-19. MethodsBased on data from the Health, Ethnicity, and Pandemic Survey (n = 2,584), a national survey conducted in the U.S. in October 2020, chi-square tests and logistic regressions were estimated to examine the association between racism experience and gun purchase during COVID-19 with and without controlling for selected covariates. ResultsAbout 6.9 % of the sample reported gun purchases during COVID-19. Among respondents who reported experience of racism, 18.3 % purchased a gun as compared to 5.8 % among those who did not report experience of racism. Relative to respondents with no experience of racism, the odds of gun purchase for those who reported racism experience became 257 % as much (AOR = 2.57, 95 % CI: 1.63, 4.04) after controlling for other covariates in the analysis. Non-Hispanic Blacks were more likely to report gun purchases than non-Hispanic Whites (AOR = 1.80, 95 % CI: 1.04, 3.10). ConclusionsAmericans who reported experience of racism during COVID-19 were far more likely to purchase a gun than those otherwise. These findings elevate the need for addressing racism as an important risk factor of firearm violence.

Universal Background Checks, Permit Requirements, and Firearm Homicide Rates

A loophole in US gun policy is that people can purchase guns from private sellers without going through any background check. Some states have addressed this loophole by requiring universal background checks for all gun sales, either at the point of sale or through a permit system; however, most studies on the effectiveness of universal background checks have not analyzed these 2 policy mechanisms separately. To assess the association of point-of-sale background check law and gun permit law, separately, with firearm homicide rates from 1976 through 2022 using the same methods and model specification. This cross-sectional study used a difference-in-differences, fixed-effects regression model to evaluate firearm laws and firearm homicide rates in 48 states from 1976 through 2022. Data were obtained for 48 states except New Hampshire and Vermont and were analyzed in January 2024. Implementation of either the law requiring a universal background check at point of sale for all firearms without a permit or the laws combining universal background checks and a state permit requirement for all gun purchasers. Annual, state-specific rates of firearm homicide per 100 000 people. From 1976 through 2022, 12 states adopted the universal background check laws without permitting requirements and 7 states implemented gun permit laws covering all firearms. The mean (SD) firearm homicide rate was 4.3 (0.1) per 100 000 people. Universal background checks for all firearms alone (without a state permitting system) were not associated with overall homicide rates (percentage change, 1.3%; 95% CI, -6.9% to 10.4%) or firearm homicide rates (percentage change, 3.7%; 95% CI, -5.3% to 13.6%). A law requiring a permit for the purchase of all firearms was associated with significantly lower overall homicide rates (percentage change, -15.4%; 95% CI, -28.5% to -0.01%) and firearm homicide rates (percentage change, -18.3%; 95% CI, -32.0% to -1.9%). This cross-sectional study found that universal background checks alone were not associated with firearm homicide rates, but a permit requirement for the purchase and possession of firearms was associated with substantially reduced rates of firearm homicide. The findings suggest that combining universal background checks and permit-to-purchase requirements is an effective strategy for firearm-related fatality reduction.

The era of progress on gun mortality: State gun regulations and gun deaths from 1991-2016.

The recent rise of gun violence may lead to the perception that the problem of gun mortality in the United States is intractable. This article provides evidence to counter this perception by bringing attention to the period spanning from 1991 to 2016, when most U.S. states implemented more restrictive gun laws. Over this period, the U.S. experienced a decline in household gun ownership and gun-related deaths fell sharply. The main analysis examines the conditional association between change in gun regulations at the state level and change in gun mortality from 1991 to 2016. We include a range of robustness checks and two instrumental variables analyses to allow for stronger causal inferences. We find strong, consistent evidence supporting the hypothesis that restrictive state gun policies reduce overall gun deaths, homicides committed with a gun, and suicides committed with a gun. Each additional restrictive gun regulation a given state passed from 1991-2016 was associated with -0.21 (95% confidence interval = -0.33, -0.08) gun deaths per 100,000 residents. Further, we find that specific policies, such as background checks and waiting periods for gun purchase, were associated with lower overall gun death rates, gun homicide rates, and gun suicide rates. State regulations passed from 1991 to 2016 were associated with substantial reductions in gun mortality. We estimate that restrictive state gun policies passed in 40 states from 1991 to 2016 averted 4,297 gun deaths in 2016 alone, or roughly 11% of the total gun deaths that year.

Who bought a gun during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States?: Associations with QAnon beliefs, right-wing political attitudes, intimate partner violence, antisocial behavior, suicidality, and mental health and substance use problems.

There was a large spike in gun purchases and gun violence during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We used an online U.S. national survey (N = 1036) to examine the characteristics of people who purchased a gun between March 2020 and October 2021 (n = 103) and compared them to non-gun owners (n = 763) and people who own a gun but did not purchase a gun during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 170). Compared to non-gun owners, pandemic gun buyers were younger and more likely to be male, White race, and to affiliate with the Republican party. Compared to non-gun owners and pre-pandemic gun owners, pandemic gun buyers exhibited extreme elevations on a constellation of political (QAnon beliefs, pro-gun attitudes, Christian Nationalism, approval of former President Donald Trump, anti-vax beliefs, COVID-19 skepticism; mean Cohen's d = 1.15), behavioral (intimate partner violence, antisocial behavior; mean d = 1.38), mental health (suicidality, depression, anxiety, substance use; mean d = 1.21), and personality (desire for power, belief in a dangerous world, low agreeableness, low conscientiousness; mean d = 0.95) characteristics. In contrast, pre-pandemic gun owners only endorsed more pro-gun attitudes (d = 0.67), lower approval of President Joe Biden (d = -0.41) and were more likely to be male and affiliate with the Republican party relative to non-gun owners. Pandemic gun buyers represent an extreme group in terms of political and psychological characteristics including several risk-factors for violence and self-harm.

The Perfect Storm? Political Instability and Background Checks During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has been observed to have increased aggressive behavior and violence in the United States. This study tests whether political instability events propelled gun purchasing behavior through a temporally sensitive analysis based on data drawn from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and monthly data from the FBI’s NICS National Instant Criminal Background Check System. It utilizes a multi-methodological framework featuring both regression modeling and qualitative comparative analysis. While results from statistical inquiry do not lend support to significant associations of any single variable on the outcome, the comparative configurational inquiry does identify three salient pathways that brought about background check increases during COVID-19. All three solutions feature the conditions of political instability and presidential election events. Alongside these factors, mass shooting occurrences are present in two of the identified solutions. These findings reveal that COVID-19 fostered a set of conditions and the formation of a “Perfect Storm” which resulted in the greatest number of annual gun purchases in recorded history.

Proceedings from the Second Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention, 2022: Creating a Sustainable Healthcare Coalition to Advance a Multidisciplinary Public Health Approach.

Proceedings from the Second Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention, 2022: Creating a Sustainable Healthcare Coalition to Advance a Multidisciplinary Public Health Approach.

National support for gun policies among U.S. adults in 2019 and 2021

Gun-related deaths and gun purchases were at record highs in 2020. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, public protests against police violence, and a tense political environment, which may influence policy preferences, we aimed to understand the current state of support for gun policies in the U.S. We fielded a national public opinion survey in January 2019 and January 2021 using an online panel to measure support for 34 gun policies among U.S. adults. We compared support over time, by gun ownership status, and by political party affiliation. Most respondents supported 33 of the 34 gun regulations studied. Support for seven restrictive policies declined from 2019 to 2021, driven by reduced support among non-gun owners. Support declined for three permissive policies: allowing legal gun carriers to bring guns onto college campuses or K-12 schools and stand your ground laws. Public support for gun-related policies decreased from 2019 to 2021, driven by decreased support among Republicans and non-gun owners.

Publisher’s note

Gun-related deaths and gun purchases were at record highs in 2020. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, public protests against police violence, and a tense political environment, which may influence policy preferences, we aimed to understand the current state of support for gun policies in the U.S. We fielded a national public opinion survey in January 2019 and January 2021 using an online panel to measure support for 34 gun policies among U.S. adults. We compared support over time, by gun ownership status, and by political party affiliation. Most respondents supported 33 of the 34 gun regulations studied. Support for seven restrictive policies declined from 2019 to 2021, driven by reduced support among non-gun owners. Support declined for three permissive policies: allowing legal gun carriers to bring guns onto college campuses or K-12 schools and stand your ground laws. Public support for gun-related policies decreased from 2019 to 2021, driven by decreased support among Republicans and non-gun owners.

The effects of CEO activism: Partisan consumer behavior and its duration

AbstractResearch SummaryCEOs increasingly engage in activism on controversial social and political issues that do not directly affect their core business. Simultaneously, the general public is increasingly politically polarized. We examine how CEOs' support for gun control after two mass shootings differentially affected the behavior of liberal and conservative consumers and the persistence of these effects. Using mobile phone location data to measure store‐level visits, we find (a) consumer visits to stores decreased by 3%; (b) this decrease was asymmetric: visits in the most conservative counties decreased by about 5% but did not change in the most liberal counties; and (c) these effects dissipated within 10 weeks after activism. Our results highlight the strategic implications for executives pressured to take stances on controversial issues.Managerial SummaryWe study how consumers respond to CEO support for gun control, and how consumers' partisan views influence their behavior. Visits to the stores of several major retailers declined about 3% in the 4 weeks after their CEOs supported expanding background checks for gun purchases. In the most liberal counties, visits did not change following CEO support for gun control, while in the most conservative counties visits declined about 5%. Hence, the reaction of liberal consumers did not counteract the reaction of conservative consumers. We find, however, that these effects dissipated within 10 weeks; as a result, retailers whose CEOs supported gun control did not experience any long‐term, net decrease in sales despite the short‐term sales decrease in conservative counties.

Congress Passes First Significant Gun Safety Bill in Decades

Congress Passes First Significant Gun Safety Bill in Decades

APA Pleased Over Recent Legislative Wins but Must Keep Pushing

APA Pleased Over Recent Legislative Wins but Must Keep Pushing

Gun shows and universal background check laws across state lines

States with more gun laws have fewer gun assaults, and associations are strongest for background check laws. However, sales between private buyers and sellers (i.e., gun shows) are exempt from some background check requirements according to federal and most state laws. The aim of this study was to determine whether gun shows are more likely to take place in counties that are near states with universal background check laws. This cross-sectional study used gun show data from a 2018 public online listing aggregated within 3107 counties in the contiguous 48 states. The main independent variable was the presence of a universal background check law in neighboring states. We controlled for potential drivers of demand for gun shows, including the total number of gun laws within-state and in neighboring states, local and in-flowing population size, and proportion of the local and in-flowing population who were gun owners. Bayesian conditional autoregressive Poisson models estimated associations between neighboring-state universal background check law and the presence of a gun show in each county while accounting for spatial dependencies and nesting of counties within states. Of the 1869 identified gun shows, nine of the states in which they occurred had a universal background check law. The presence of excess gun shows in counties near states with universal background check laws is consistent with the hypothesis that gun shows service demand from people seeking to circumvent prohibitions against gun purchases.

How do veterans view gun policies? Evidence from the Guns in American Life Survey

AbstractObjectiveDo veterans of the U.S. armed forces, a population with unique knowledge of and experience with guns, have distinctive views of gun control policies? While veterans are commonly assumed to be conservatives and Republicans, an emerging body of work has begun to explore the complexities of their policy opinions, partisanship, and voting behaviors. Such work provides needed nuance about this symbolically and politically important group.MethodsUsing the Guns in American Life Survey (2018, n = 3103), we test whether veterans (with combat and noncombat experiences), family members of veterans, and nonveterans have different perspectives, even after taking into account factors such as gun ownership and partisanship. ResultsThe findings indicate that veterans (and particularly combat veterans) are more supportive than nonveterans of expanding civilians' gun carrying rights. On the other hand, veterans with and without combat experience are more likely to favor banning AR15 and military‐style rifles and high‐capacity ammunition clips. Veterans are also more likely to favor a 14‐day waiting period for all gun purchases, but they do not have unique positions on mental health screening for gun purchases.ConclusionTaken together, these findings appear to reflect a veteran population that is positively disposed toward guns in general but also understands the destructive power of military‐style weapons.

Gun ownership, community stress, and sleep disturbance in America

ObjectiveAlthough there is widespread speculation about guns helping people to sleep better, this idea has only recently faced empirical scrutiny. We test whether people who own guns tend to exhibit healthier sleep outcomes than people who do not own guns and whether the association between community stress and sleep is less pronounced for people who own guns. DesignWe use ordinary least squares, multinomial logistic, and binary logistic regression to model cross-sectional survey data. SettingOur data span the United States. ParticipantsThe 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (CHAPS) is based on a national probability sample of 1714 adults. MeasurementsOur analyses include multiple measures of gun ownership (personal ownership, keeping a gun in one's bedroom, and COVID-19 pandemic gun purchases), community stress (neighborhood disorder, neighborhood danger during the pandemic, and perceptions of police protection), and sleep (insomnia symptoms, sleep duration, and pandemic sleep). ResultsWe found that people who own guns and people who do not own guns tend to exhibit similar sleep outcomes and that people who experience community stressors tend to exhibit similar sleep outcomes regardless of gun ownership. ConclusionOur analyses confirm that gun ownership is unrelated to sleep and that guns are insufficient to mitigate the detrimental effects of community stress on sleep. We extend prior work by (a) using more detailed measurements of gun ownership, community stress, and sleep, (b) assessing whether people keep a gun in their bedroom, and (c) exploring the intersection of pandemic gun purchases and pandemic sleep quality.

Modeling recent gun purchases: A social epidemiology of the pandemic arms race

In this paper, we document the social patterning of recent gun purchases to advance a contemporary social epidemiology of the pandemic arms race. We employ cross-sectional survey data from the 2020 Health, Ethnicity and Pandemic Study, which included a national sample of 2,709 community-dwelling adults living in the United States. We use binary logistic regression to model recent pandemic gun purchases as a function of age, sex, race/ethnicity, nativity status, region of residence, marital status, number of children, education, household income, pandemic job change, religious service attendance, pandemic religion change, and political party. Overall, 6% of the sample reported purchasing a new gun during the pandemic. Multivariate regression results suggest that pandemic gun purchasers tend to be male, younger, US-born, less educated, recently unemployed, experiencing changes in their religious beliefs, Republicans, and residents of southern states. To our knowledge, we are among the first to formally document a new population of pandemic gun owners that is characterized by youth, US-nativity, and religious volatility. Our analyses underscore the need for public health initiatives designed to enhance gun-related safety during pandemics, including, for example, addressing underlying motivations for recent gun purchases and improving access to training programs.

Some fear, more loathing? Threats and anxieties shaping protective gun ownership and gun carry in the U.S.

ABSTRACT Given notable recent spikes in gun purchases in the U.S., we revisit the ‘fear and loathing’ hypothesis of firearm demand by (1) establishing how crime/victimization fears are shaped by broader economic, cultural, and racial status anxieties (those emerging from group status threats [loathing]) and (2) illustrating how both fear and loathing matter for protective gun ownership and gun carry (among owners), and openness to future protective ownership among non-owners. Using data from a nationwide survey of adults in the U.S. (n = 2,262) collected in 2019, we find that fears of crime and victimization are often more strongly associated with status anxieties than with safety threats. Both status anxieties and victimization are associated with protective ownership and carry. Among non-owners, those higher in cultural anxiety are especially likely to be open toward future protective gun ownership. This study illustrates the multidimensional fear-guns link, wherein both status-related threats and victimization-related fears shape why individuals own guns, and how they use guns.

Differences in beliefs about COVID-19 by gun ownership: a cross-sectional survey of Texas adults

ObjectivesWe investigated the association between gun ownership and perceptions about COVID-19 among Texas adults as the pandemic emerged. We considered perceived likelihood that the pandemic would lead to civil unrest,...

Firearm Ownership, Defensive Gun Usage, and Support for Gun Control: Does Knowledge Matter?

Recent incidents of gun violence have raised questions about public access to “military-style” firearms and the need for more-restrictive forms of gun control. Proponents of more-restrictive forms of gun regulation argue that such measures will help combat the disproportionately high rates of gun crime in the United States. Opponents believe that such measures infringe upon constitutional rights and hinder law-abiding citizens' abilities to adequately defend themselves. This project explores the characteristics of gun owners living in Pennsylvania and public perceptions of three different categories of gun control. Results indicate that most gun owners have received some form of training and take appropriate safety precautions with their firearms. Further, 1 in 4 gun owners reported using their firearm in self-defense at some point in their life. Regarding gun control, most participants favored strategies intended to keep guns away from dangerous and “at risk” people, such as required background checks for all types of gun purchases, mental health screenings, and mandatory gun education. However, most participants opposed complete firearm bans. Among those who are the least supportive of such polices are those who are the most knowledgeable about gun crime, gun legislation, and gun functioning. Policy implications are discussed within.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12103-021-09644-7.

Are gun ownership rates and regulations associated with firearm incidents in American schools? A forty-year analysis (1980–2019)

PurposeThis study examines the relationship between state gun ownership rates and school firearm incidents (n = 1275) and injured/killed victims (n = 2026) of these incidents over a forty-year period (1980–2019). It also investigates whether child access prevention, minimum age requirements for gun purchases, and mandatory gun safety training laws are associated with fewer school firearm incidents and injured/killed victims. MethodsData were linked together from the School Shootings Database, State Firearm Law Database, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the US Census Bureau. State fixed effects and interrupted time series analyses were performed. ResultsState gun ownership rates declined between 1980 and 2019 while school firearm incidents generally ranged between 20 and 40 incidents before skyrocketing to 102 incidents in 2018 and 110 incidents in 2019. Findings were mixed on the relationship between state gun ownership rates and school firearm incidents and injured/killed victims. Additionally, child access prevention, minimum age requirements for gun purchases, and mandatory gun safety training laws exhibited weak and inconsistent relationships with school firearm incidents. DiscussionAlthough access to firearms plays an undeniable role in school shootings, it remains unclear what policies are needed to reduce these incidents. Future research may be needed to explore holistic approaches to addressing this problem.

The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Pediatric Firearm Injuries.

The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Pediatric Firearm Injuries.