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More Americans than ever before own guns for personal protection, a new survey shows.
Gun sales have increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, as have gun deaths. In the year In 2021, 48,830 people in the US will die from gun-related injuries The highest number On the record. Approximately 7.5 million Americans are adults New gun owners At the time of the outbreak, and most of them were already living in a gun-free home. 2021, according to the National Firearms Survey.
In a survey published Thursday in the Journal of Injury Prevention, researchers asked a nationally representative sample of nearly 2,500 American adults who reported owning a gun between May and June 2023.
Nearly 80% said they were motivated to get a gun for personal protection, a rate that appears to have risen over the past 25 years. In 1999, about 26 percent of Americans reported carrying a gun for protection, but no study has tracked the causes of gun ownership over time. He said that conservation is their main motivation to acquire weapons from 2017 to 2021.
It's a trend that dates back to social crises in the 1960s, said Dr. David Yamane, a professor of sociology at Wake Forest University who studies gun culture in the United States and was not involved in the study.
“It was a time of deep social unrest and social unrest, a lot of political movements, cultural changes, foreign threats, people listening to crazy music, you know, 'sex, drugs and rock'n' roll,' political assassinations, riots or protests. Activities in some cities,” says Yamane, who has a gun and who Funds organizations that promote gun ownership.
In some ways, the epidemic years mirrored the social movements of the 1960s.
“If you think about the year 2020, it actually had some characteristics,” Yamane said. “There was a covid that immediately transitioned into a crazy presidential election to George Floyd's killing and Black Lives Matter protests.”
People started to worry about personal safety. And carrying a gun became a way for many to cope with the turmoil of the times. Yamane says the change has fueled the flames of defensive gun culture.
Since at least the 1980s, the gun industry He made progress The idea of using a gun for personal protection and “advocating to pass the so-calledStand your ground” rules This allows the use of deadly force if a person is defending himself.
But the study shows that people who own guns or live with gun owners They are generally less secure. than those who do not.
“Despite the widely touted safety benefits of having a gun in the home, all credible studies so far show that people who live in homes with guns are at a higher — not lower — risk of homicide,” said Dr. David Studert, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. House Health Policy said in a 2022 news release about its research on the topic.
In the year In 2022, Studert led a study that found that people who lived with gun owners but did not own a gun were seven times more likely to be shot and killed by a spouse or romantic partner. People who don't live with gun owners.
In addition, data from the National Crime Victimization Survey shows that Guns are rarely used To protect oneself during personal contact.
The new survey, led by researchers at the Gun Injury Prevention Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, found that gun motivation and ownership differed depending on whether a state had a “stand your ground” law. .
Of the 2,477 gun-owning adults who responded to the survey, 79% reported protection as their main reason for owning a firearm, and 52% said they left home with a firearm in the past year to avoid work, hunting or target shooting. .
The study found that people are more likely to carry guns for protection in states with “stand your ground” laws, but gun owners in those states are more likely to carry them outside. Yamane pointed out that only about 5% of people said they carried them. He reported that he took a gun outside their home for protection.
“Most people are hunting, going to the range, whatever,” he said.
Gender and ethnicity and race were strong predictors of a person's willingness to own a gun, but not political affiliation. Women, blacks, and Hispanics were more likely to say they carry guns for protection than for other reasons. Almost all black and Asian women who own a gun — 98% — say they carry that weapon for protection.