Journal Article

Who bought a gun during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States?: Associations with QAnon beliefs, right-wing political attitudes, intimate partner violence, antisocial behavior, suicidality, and mental health and substance use problems

Verona, Edelyn, Hicks, Brian M., Heitzeg, Mary M., Johnson, Elizabeth, Vitro, Catherine, Durbin, C. Emily, Sherman, Carter

2023

Overview

There was a large spike in gun purchases and gun violence during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We used an online U.S. national survey ( N = 1036) to examine the characteristics of people who purchased a gun between March 2020 and October 2021 ( n = 103) and compared them to non-gun owners ( n = 763) and people who own a gun but did not purchase a gun during the COVID-19 pandemic ( n = 170). Compared to non-gun owners, pandemic gun buyers were younger and more likely to be male, White race, and to affiliate with the Republican party. Compared to non-gun owners and pre-pandemic gun owners, pandemic gun buyers exhibited extreme elevations on a constellation of political (QAnon beliefs, pro-gun attitudes, Christian Nationalism, approval of former President Donald Trump, anti-vax beliefs, COVID-19 skepticism; mean Cohen’s d = 1.15), behavioral (intimate partner violence, antisocial behavior; mean d = 1.38), mental health (suicidality, depression, anxiety, substance use; mean d = 1.21), and personality (desire for power, belief in a dangerous world, low agreeableness, low conscientiousness; mean d = 0.95) characteristics. In contrast, pre-pandemic gun owners only endorsed more pro-gun attitudes ( d = 0.67), lower approval of President Joe Biden ( d = -0.41) and were more likely to be male and affiliate with the Republican party relative to non-gun owners. Pandemic gun buyers represent an extreme group in terms of political and psychological characteristics including several risk-factors for violence and self-harm.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Aggression / Agreeableness / Antisocial behavior / Antisocial personality disorder / Anxiety / Attitudes / Beliefs / Biology and Life Sciences / Buyers / Conscientiousness / COVID-19 / Domestic violence / Drug use / Election results / Engineering and Technology / Epidemics / Evaluation / Family violence / Firearms / Firearms ownership / First year / Gun control / Gun violence / Health behavior / Intimate partner violence / Laws, regulations and rules / Males / Medical policy / Medicine and Health Sciences / Mental disorders / Mental health / Murders & murder attempts / Nationalism / Owners / Pandemics / Personality / Political attitudes / Political parties / Politics / Polls & surveys / Presidential approval / Presidential elections / Prevention / Purchasing / Race / Rebellions / Right and left (Political science) / Right wing politics / Risk factors / Self destructive behavior / Self injury / Social aspects / Social behavior / Social Sciences / Substance abuse / Substance use / Suicidal behavior / Suicide / Suicides & suicide attempts / Trauma / Trauma centers / Violence / Voter fraud