Political violence, racial violence, and new gun ownership: results from the 2023 National Survey of Gun Policy

作者：Rebecca Valek, Julie Ward, Vanya Jones, Cassandra K. Crifasi · 发表于：Injury Epidemiology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1186/s40621-024-00527-z · 被引用次数：13 · 研究领域：Gun Ownership and Violence Research、Traumatic Ocular and Foreign Body Injuries、Rabies epidemiology and control

BACKGROUND: U.S. firearm sales surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many purchases by first-time firearm owners. The 2023 National Survey of Gun Policy sought to understand the public health implications of this surge by comparing the purchasing motivations and firearm policy views of pandemic-era first-time purchasers to prior gun owners. METHODS: We fielded a nationally representative public opinion survey of U.S. adults (n = 3096) from 1/4/23 to 2/6/23. We oversampled for gun owners and Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans. Survey weights were applied to generate representative estimates. New gun owners were identified through affirmative responses to: "Have you bought any guns since January 1, 2020?" and "Did you buy your first gun after January 1, 2020?" Recent purchasers were additionally asked whether concerns of 1) political or 2) racial violence motivated their purchase. Purchase motivations and gun policy support were examined among new and prior gun owners (n = 1002) and compared using logistic regression and predictive probabilities. RESULTS: Overall, 11% of respondents reported purchasing a gun since 1/1/20, 35% for the first time. Among recent purchasers, larger proportions of Democrat, Black, Asian, and Hispanic respondents were new gun owners than Republican or white respondents. Compared to prior owners, odds were 4.5-times higher that new gun owners' recent purchase was motivated by racial violence and 3.2-times higher for political violence. Majority s...