Mass shootings in California led to spike in handgun sales
Researchers from the US find that mass shooting lead to spikes in handgun sales in California, as they look at numbers after the Newtown and San Bernardino shootings. More than 32,000 people die of gunshot wounds in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the six weeks after the Newtown shootings — when a young man fatally gunned down 20 children and six adults — handgun acquisitions in California rose by 53 percent over expected levels, a new study by researchers at Stanford University and two other universities shows. In the six weeks after a couple armed with semiautomatic weapons killed 14 people at an event held by the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health in 2015, handgun purchase rates were 85 percent higher than expected among residents of the city of San Bernardino and adjacent neighborhoods, and 35 percent higher elsewhere in California, the same study found.
“For some, a gruesome mass shooting may induce repulsion at the idea of owning a weapon. For others, it may motivate acquisition. Mass shootings are likely to boost sales if they heighten concerns over personal security, because self-protection is the most commonly cited reason for owning a firearm,” the authors wrote in their study, published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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According to a press release by Stanford University, researchers used detailed, individual-level information on firearm transactions in California between 2007 and 2016 to analyse acquisition patterns after two of the highest-profile mass shootings in U.S. history. They found large and significant spikes occurred among whites and Hispanics, and among individuals who had no record of having previously acquired a handgun.
Although these spikes in handgun purchases after both mass shootings were large, they were also short-lived and accounted for less than 10 percent of annual handgun purchases statewide.
“The cumulative effect of such ‘shocks’ as Newtown and San Bernardino shootings on firearm prevalence may be substantial. Moreover, firearm acquisitions seem to be sensitive to a range of other events that are also common, such as federal elections, new firearm safety laws and terrorist attacks,” the researchers said.
More than 32,000 people die of gunshot wounds in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While mass shootings account for less than 1 percent of those deaths, they are the most visible form of firearm violence because of the extensive broadcast and social media coverage that surround them.
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