By: Veronica A. Pear, MPH, MA (lead author); Amy Barnhorst, MD; and Garen J. Wintemute, MD, MPH. Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has people around the world feeling vulnerable and scared.
In America, individualism and firearm culture have generated a unique response to this threat: stockpiling firearms and ammunition.1 Historically, it is unlikely that these firearms will be used defensively.2 In fact, there is strong evidence that, on balance, firearms in the home don’t protect people from harm.
Instead, they put everyone in the household at increased risk of injury.3 The social, emotional, and economic stress introduced by the coronavirus pandemic and the necessary measures we are taking to flatten the curve create a particularly volatile
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