(Press-News.org) Firearm purchases and firearm violence surged dramatically during the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study from the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP), published in Injury Epidemiology.
From March through July 2020, an estimated 4.3 million more background checks for firearm purchases occurred nationwide than would have ordinarily -- an 85 percent increase. The total number of firearm purchases during this period was 9.3 million.
From April through July 2020, there was a 27% increase in interpersonal firearm injuries, which includes firearm homicides or nonfatal firearm assault injuries. This is approximately 4,075 more injuries than would be expected for that period.
Firearm violence is a significant public health problem in the United States. It is among America's leading causes of death and disability and has profound adverse social, psychological and economic effects.
"Early in the pandemic, there were news reports about an increase in firearm purchasing. Given what we know about the risks of firearm violence associated with firearm access in general, and firearm purchasing surges specifically, we expected to see a relationship between these two during the pandemic," said Julia Schleimer, lead author for the study and a research data analyst at VPRP.
States with the most excess firearm purchases per 100,000 population (March-July 2020)
1. Mississippi 2804.8
2. Wyoming 2632.7
3. Alabama 2506.8
4. Idaho 2386.2
5. Michigan 2385.7
Firearm purchases and domestic violence
An earlier study from VPRP had found an association between firearm purchases and violence through May 2020. The present study extended the analysis through July 2020 and examined firearm injuries from domestic violence separately from non-domestic violence.
"We know that access to firearms is a risk factor for intimate partner homicide. Last year, the increase in firearm purchasing combined with stay-at-home orders and multiple other stressors like job loss raised concern about increases in domestic violence," Schleimer said.
As expected, the authors found states where firearm purchases went up the most showed the largest increases in firearm injuries from domestic violence. This was particularly true during April and May when social distancing was at its peak. However, they note results should be interpreted with caution since additional analyses showed that other, unmeasured variables might explain the association.
States with highest average rate of firearm injuries from domestic violence per 100,000 population (March-July 2020)
1. Mississippi 0.23
2. Wyoming 0.17
3. West Virginia 0.16
4. Alabama 0.14
5. Louisiana 0.14
Firearm purchases and non-domestic violence
Surprisingly, the researchers did not find a similar correlation between excess firearm purchases and non-domestic violence at the state level. States with the largest increases in purchases from March through July 2020 did not experience the largest increases in non-domestic firearm violence.
"This was unexpected given prior studies. If we look at the country as a whole, we saw that purchasing and violence both went up on average. But when we looked state-by-state at the places in which firearm purchases increased the most, those weren't the places where the violence increased the most," Schleimer said.
To make these comparisons, the researchers tracked monthly firearm purchases per 100,000 population by state (using background checks as a proxy), along with monthly firearm injuries, fatal and nonfatal, per 100,000 people.
The data include the District of Columbia but not Alaska or Hawaii due to incomplete reporting. The study focuses on intentional, interpersonal firearm violence and does not include suicide or unintentional firearm injuries.
States and districts that had the highest rates of non-domestic firearm violence were the District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri and Delaware.
States and districts with highest average rate of non-domestic firearm violence per 100,000 population (March-July 2020)
1. District of Columbia 10.2
2. Illinois 3.7
3. Louisiana 3.2
4. Missouri 2.6
5. Delaware 2.3
The results of the study suggest that pre-pandemic firearm access and other factors -- major disruptions to routines, grief from the pandemic, economic strain and unemployment, and civic unrest -- might have been important contributing factors to the pandemic-related increase firearm violence observed through July 2020.
"The increase in purchasing has continued unabated through the first half of 2021, and crime rates have increased as well. We, and others, will continue to examine the relationship between firearm availability and violence," said Garen Wintemute, director of the UC Davis VPRP and professor of emergency medicine at UC Davis Health.
INFORMATION:
Additional authors on the study include Christopher D. McCort, Aaron B. Shev, Veronica A. Pear, Elizabeth Tomsich, Alaina De Biasi, Shani Buggs, and Hannah S. Laqueur from the VPRP team.
Support for this research was provided by the Joyce Foundation (grant no. 42400), the Heising-Simons Foundation (grant no. 2019-1728), and the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center.
The UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP) is a multi-disciplinary program of research and policy development focused on the causes, consequences and prevention of violence. Studies assess firearm violence, the social conditions that underlie violence, and the connections between violence, substance abuse and mental illness. VPRP is home to the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center, which launched in 2017 with a $5 million appropriation from the state of California to conduct leading-edge research on firearm violence and its prevention. For more information, visit health.ucdavis.edu/vprp/.
Eight pieces of salmon-based maki, nigiri or sashimi or maki unagi (eel) is the safest combination of sushi for adult and adolescent populations. That is one of the findings of TecnATox (Centre for Environmental, Food and Toxicological Technology), a joint research group from the URV and the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV), which has analysed the presence of arsenic and various heavy metals in sushi. The consumption of sushi has increased significantly since the start of the 21st century, as has the number of restaurants offering it throughout the region. Although eating fish is recommended because of its high nutritional value, it can also lead to exposure to contaminants, such as heavy metals. Likewise, rice is a food that provides many nutrients ...
The rationale for the research is in the fact that despite the high number of recognized Indigenous groups who are struggling to maintain their languages, cultures, and identities in Russia, there is little research done on the matters of cultural and linguistic revitalization. This study sought to address this gap by exploring the views of two Indigenous groups, Karelian and Mari, on the development of their Indigenous languages and educational strategies to protect and revive their languages. The study relied on in-depth one-on-one interviews with 20 participants, ten from each Indigenous group.
The findings show that despite older generations' relative proficiency and interest in their respective Indigenous languages, motivation to master them is ...
ATLANTA - JULY 8, 2021 - Overall cancer death rates continue to decline in men and women for all racial and ethnic groups in the United States, according to the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer. During 2001 to 2018, declines in lung cancer death rates accelerated, and death rates for melanoma declined considerably in more recent years, reflecting a substantial increase in survival for metastatic melanoma. However, the report finds that for several other major cancers, including prostate, colorectal and female breast cancers, previous declining trends in death rates slowed or disappeared.
The report, appearing in JNCI: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, also finds that overall cancer incidence ...
Tooth loss is a risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia--and with each tooth lost, the risk of cognitive decline grows, according to a new analysis led by researchers at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and published in JAMDA: The Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. However, this risk was not significant among older adults with dentures, suggesting that timely treatment with dentures may protect against cognitive decline.
About one in six adults aged 65 or older have lost all of their teeth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior studies show a connection ...
The average body size of humans has fluctuated significantly over the last million years and is strongly linked to temperature.
Colder, harsher climates drove the evolution of larger body sizes, while warmer climates led to smaller bodies.
Brain size also changed dramatically but did not evolve in tandem with body size.
An interdisciplinary team of researchers, led by the Universities of Cambridge and Tübingen, has gathered measurements of body and brain size for over 300 fossils from the genus Homo found across the globe. By combining this data with a reconstruction of the ...
DALLAS, July 8, 2021 -- The stress of experiencing discrimination in multiple ways, including transphobia, interpersonal discrimination, violence and public policies specifically targeting transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people, is linked to higher rates of heart disease among the TGD population, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published today in Circulation, the Association's flagship journal. A scientific statement is an expert analysis of current research and may inform future guidelines.
The statement, Assessing and Addressing Cardiovascular Health ...
For decades, there has been great interest in whether omega-3 fatty acids can lower rates of cardiovascular events. In 2018, results from the Reduction of Cardiovascular Events with Icosapent Ethyl-Intervention Trial (REDUCE-IT) were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and showed that a high dose of a purified ethyl ester of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in patients at elevated cardiac risk significantly reduced cardiovascular events. Results from the trial led to US. Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada, and European Medicines Agency approval ...
Myocarditis-or inflammation around the heart--has been reported in some patients with COVID-19. After searching the medical literature, researchers have now summarized the results of 41 studies describing myocarditis in 42 patients with COVID-19.
The analysis, which is published in the END ...
In women in their mid-40s to early 50s, endometriosis--a condition in which tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside the uterus--was linked with poor work ability and more sick days, but not with unemployment or early retirement.
The findings, which are published in END ...
Physical relaxation through yoga or other practices can help reduce work-related stress, according to an analysis of studies conducted in healthcare staff.
The analysis, which is published in the END ...