110,000 Californians bought guns in response to COVID-19 crisis: Report
A new study has found that a large number of Californians in the US have bought new firearms in the first five months of the coronavirus crisis.
“An estimated 110,000 people acquired firearms due to the pandemic (2.4% of firearm owners in the state), including approximately 47,000 new owners,” the new study by the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) researchers showed.
The study titled, Violence, firearms, and the coronavirus pandemic: Findings from the 2020 California Safety and Wellbeing Survey, found that since the COVID-19 pandemic many gun owners had also changed the way they stored their firearms.
By mid-July, the pandemic was cited as a factor in the purchase of a firearm.
According to the study, many gun owners now stored their firearms loaded and not locked.
"Approximately 55,000 individuals (1.2% of owners) who currently store at least one firearm loaded and not locked up said they had adopted this unsecure storage practice in response to the pandemic. the study stated.
The study showed that concern over multiple types of violence had increased during the pandemic.
The survey was given to 2,870 people who represented the state’s adult population.
"In this cross-sectional, population-representative survey of 2,870 adults in California, worry about multiple types of violence for oneself increased during the pandemic." it stated.
According to the study, the coronavirus crisis had exacerbated deep-rooted injustices.
"The pandemic has exacerbated longstanding injustices rooted in systemic racism and other oppressive systems of power that contribute to the underlying conditions (e.g., poverty, unemployment, lack of available resources)," it stated.
The majority 76% of new gun buyers said they were worried about lawlessness.
More than half, 56%, said they were worried about the release of prisoners as a result of coronavirus outbreaks at prisons.
About half of them said they were worried about the government “going too far and 38%.worried the US government would collapse under the pandemic.
Earlier reports found that firearm sales in the US had surged since the pandemic started.
Reports indicate that demand for firearms has been growing throughout the coronavirus outbreak.
California, New York, Washington, Alabama and Ohio were a few states, among others, that were reporting sales growth.
Gun control advocates, however, were concerned that due to the pandemic many new gun owners were lacking the usual access to training on how to handle and store their weapon.
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