Rise in pandemic-related gun purchases linked to shooting spike.
Posted on August 22 2020
“Preliminary research from the UC Davis Violence Prevention Program calculates the increased gun violence that may have resulted from the surge in gun buying that has accompanied the coronavirus (and reached a new record against the backdrop of last month's protests). Between March and May, the scholars found, 2.1 million more firearms entered circulation than would have under typical demand.
Those "excess purchases" are associated with more than 775 fatl and nonfatal gun injuries that otherwise might not have occurred. “Screening for firearm ownership in healthcare settings, supporting safer firearm use and storage, limiting the size of these surges, and addressing other individual and community-level risk factors for gun violence may be particularly important during the pandemic,” said Julia Schleimer, one of the study’s authors.”
Source: The Trace: July 6th, 2020
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.20145508v2.full.pdf
