People who bought a gun in the US during the covid-19 pandemic are more likely to have extreme political beliefs and thoughts of suicide or violence than those who purchased a gun before the pandemic. The finding suggests that pandemic-era gun buyers may be at a higher risk of committing violence either against themselves or others.
US gun sales rose dramatically during the covid-19 pandemic. From 2019 to 2020, there was a in firearm purchases, and this continued to climb into 2022. At the same time, the US experienced social unrest over lockdown measures, police brutality and the 2020 presidential election.
鈥淲e wanted to see if these [gun buyers] might have different motives, and therefore different characteristics, [than previous gun buyers] because of all the events that occurred during the pandemic,鈥� says at the University of South Florida.
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She and her colleagues collected data from 3986 people in the US from September 2021 to January 2023. Participants were between 18 and 90 years old and lived throughout the US. A little less than half were men and about 75 per cent identified as non-Hispanic white.
Participants answered survey questions about gun ownership, mental health, political beliefs and violent behaviours and thoughts. Of the respondents, 2858 said they didn鈥檛 own a gun. Among the 1128 firearm owners, 423 reported purchasing a gun between March 2020 and March 2022.
After adjusting for age, gender and number of guns owned, the researchers found that pandemic-era gun buyers differed significantly from non-gun owners and pre-pandemic gun buyers. For instance, 60 per cent of pandemic-era gun buyers identified with alt-right political ideologies, such as white nationalism, compared with less than 20 per cent of both pre-pandemic gun buyers and non-gun owners surveyed during the same period. In the larger US population, nearly of people identify as having extreme political beliefs.
Additionally, 72 per cent of pandemic-era gun buyers expressed support for the attack on the US Capitol building that occurred on 6 January 2021, versus about 30 per cent of both non-gun owners and pre-pandemic gun buyers. For reference, about of US citizens approve of the insurrection. Pandemic-era gun buyers were also more likely to report that they had suicidal thoughts, harmed themselves or had a history of domestic abuse.
The most recent survey wave, which included 1579 participants, asked if people had thought about shooting someone. Nearly half of pandemic-era gun buyers said they had, while less than 10 per cent of non-gun owners and pre-pandemic gun owners reported having such thoughts.
鈥淲hat we saw is that [having] more extreme political views was related to also being high on other risk factors for violence, like having thoughts about shooting other people and having a history of intimate partner violence,鈥� says Verona, who presented these findings at a virtual conference hosted by Johns Hopkins University on 9 February.
鈥淚f we have people whose beliefs are really radical 鈥� and, I would argue, detached from reality 鈥� purchasing firearms in large numbers, that needs to compel us to really think about policy implications,鈥� says at Northland College in Wisconsin.
Verona says these results could help inform extreme risk protection orders, also known as red flag laws, that temporarily restrict people from purchasing or possessing firearms if they pose a danger to themselves or others.
The research also helps to dismiss the common notion all gun owners are the same. 鈥淲hen we are thinking of gun owners as one homogenous political bloc, we don鈥檛 recognise that even among gun owners, there鈥檚 a willingness and a desire for legislative change that would make us all safer,鈥� says Stroud.
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