COVID-19 pandemic has increased firearm acquisition, people’s worry about violence

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts related to mitigating its spread were associated with increases in worry about violence for oneself and others, according to results of a survey study published in JAMA Network Open.

Moreover, the pandemic has also been linked to an increase in firearm acquisition.

“While most major news sources reported initial decreases in violent incidents, as measured by local police calls for service, following pandemic-related lockdowns and stay at-home orders, the latest indications are that more serious acts of violence, particularly those involving firearms, have remained the same or increased,” Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, PhD, MPH, of the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center and Violence Prevention Research Program, and colleagues wrote. “In addition to a marked increase in shootings in several large cities across the country, the pandemic appears to have fueled a surge in firearm background checks, an established proxy for firearm sales.”

A prior study that surveyed individuals who purchased a firearm because of the pandemic used a nonrepresentative sample of respondents, thus limiting the accurate representation of the sociodemographic profile of most firearm owners.

To address this and other research gaps, Kravtiz-Wirtz and colleagues sought to highlight individuals’ concerns related to violence in the context of the pandemic, experiences of unfair treatment linked to the pandemic, prevalence of and reasons for acquiring firearms and changes in firearm storage practices because of the pandemic. The investigators analyzed complete survey data of 2,870 adults who were included in the 2020 California Safety and Well-being Survey, a probability-based internet survey conducted between July 14 and 27.

Results showed significantly higher self-reported worry about violence for oneself during the pandemic for all violence types except mass shootings, ranging from a 2.8% increase for robbery to a 5.6% increase for stray bullet shootings. A total of 13.1% (95% CI, 11.5-15.3) of participants reported concern that someone they know might intentionally harm themselves. Of these participants, 7.5% (95% CI, 4.5-12.2) attributed this increased concern to the other person having experienced a loss related to the pandemic. Further, an estimated 110,000 individuals, or 2.4% of firearm owners in California, acquired a firearm because of the pandemic, including 47,000 new owners. Among owners who stored one or more firearm in the least secure way, 6.7% (95% CI, 2.7-15.6) said they did so in response to the pandemic.

“These findings can inform prevention and intervention efforts now and following other societal shocks that exacerbate persistent structural, economic and social inequities that are associated with violence and its consequences, as well as lay the groundwork for more comprehensive research and prevention efforts in the future,” Kravitz-Wirtz and colleagues wrote.

In a related editorial, Katelin Hoskins, PhD, MBE, CRNP, and Rinad S. Beidas, PhD, both of the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, highlighted further considerations and research opportunities related to increased firearm acquisition during the pandemic.

“Given the surge in new ownership of firearms, we believe that collaboration with firearm owning constituencies is essential to address the potential downstream adverse effects of increases in firearm ownership with regard to injury and suicide prevention,” they wrote. “Furthermore, the inequities in communities of racial/ethnic minority groups must be addressed. The influx of recent funding from the [CDC] and the [NIH] to fund firearm injury prevention research is a reason for optimism as researchers keep pushing to understand the best firearm-related practices to improve health equitably.”