PACKING heat may backfire. People who carry guns are far more likely to get shot than those who are unarmed, a study of shooting victims in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has found.
It would be impractical 鈥� not to say unethical 鈥� to randomly assign volunteers to carry a gun or not and see what happens. So 鈥榮 team at the University of Pennsylvania analysed 677 shootings over two-and-a-half years to discover whether victims were carrying at the time, and compared them to other Philly residents of similar age, sex and ethnicity. The team also accounted for further potentially confounding differences, such as the socioeconomic status of their neighbourhood.
Overall, people who carried guns were 4.5 times as likely to be shot and 4.2 times as likely to get killed compared with unarmed citizens. When Branas鈥檚 team looked at shootings in which victims had a chance to defend themselves, their odds of getting shot were even higher (American Journal of Public Health, )
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While people who think they are at risk of getting shot may also be more likely to carry firearms, Branas speculates that guns may give a sense of empowerment that causes carriers to overreact, or encourages them to visit dangerous neighbourhoods. Supporters of the Second Amendment shouldn鈥檛 worry that the right to bear arms is under threat, however. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have an answer as to whether guns are protective or perilous,鈥� Branas says. 鈥淭his study is a beginning.鈥�