Americans bought almost 60 million guns during the pandemic

Published

2 years ago

April 21, 2023

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One-fifth of U.S. households purchased guns during the pandemic, a national arming that exposed more than 15 million Americans to firearms in the home for the first time, academic studies show.

Americans purchased nearly 60 million guns between 2020 and 2022, according to an analysis by The Trace, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that tracks gun violence. Yearly gun sales are running at roughly twice the level of 15 or 20 years ago.

All the new weapons may be fueling a historic surge in gun deaths, which reached record highs during the same period.

“It’s a totally different type of gun ownership now,” said John Roman, a senior fellow in the Economics, Justice and Society Group at NORC, a research organization based at the University of Chicago.

“It’s not a rifle stored away somewhere that you take out twice a year to go hunting. It’s a handgun, probably a semiautomatic handgun, that you keep in your bedside table or in your glove compartment, or that you maybe carry around with you.”

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a run on gun shops, part of a larger national spasm of panic-buying that gripped the country at a moment when many Americans thought society might collapse.

“There was fear, and real concern, about what happens to the country during a global pandemic,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president of law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control nonprofit.

The National Rifle Association fanned that fear, Suplina said, by tweeting out a video of a woman holding a rifle and pushing firearms as a pandemic safety measure.

“You might be stockpiling up on food right now to get through this current crisis,” the woman says. “But if you aren’t preparing to defend your property when everything goes wrong, you’re really just stockpiling for somebody else.”

Between March 2020 and March 2022, 18 percent of households bought guns, according to a NORC survey.

Pandemic gun sales raised the share of Americans living in armed homes to 46 percent, up from 32 percent in 2010.

“Five percent of Americans said they bought a gun for the first time during the pandemic, which is a huge number,” Roman said. “Those buyers were younger, they were more likely to be renters, they were more likely to be women, they were more likely to be people of color.”

A scholarly study found that 7.5 million Americans became new gun owners between 2019 and 2021. Those purchases exposed 17 million Americans to household firearms for the first time, a figure that includes 5 million children.

The study found that many Americans who already owned guns, nearly 20 million, bought more.

“Most people say, ‘I bought the gun to protect myself and my family against home invasion,’” said Matthew Miller, professor of health sciences and epidemiology at Northeastern University and one of the report’s authors. “But that doesn’t explain why most of the guns that were bought during this time period were bought by people who already owned guns.”

The pandemic accelerated a rise in gun ownership that began around 2005, the year Congress passed a law that largely shielded gun manufacturers from liability when their products are used in crimes.

That law set off a new era of emboldened advertising by gun makers, who marketed firearms as an essential tool for defending the American home.

“This is to protect yourself against your fellow humans,” Roman said, “with the implication being that your fellow humans are getting increasingly dangerous. Which is ironic, of course,” because violent crime stood at a low ebb after the turn of the millennium.

Gun sales rose further with the 2008 election of former President Obama, partly from fears “that the government was going to shut down gun purchases,” said Eric Fleegler, an associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School who studies gun violence.

FBI background checks for firearm sales more than doubled in a decade, from 9 million in 2005 to 23 million in 2015. Five years later, in pandemic-scarred 2020, the bureau conducted nearly 40 million background checks.

Gun sales have retreated since then. But the FBI logged 8 million background checks through March, presaging a yearend total of at least 30 million for 2023.

Background checks are an imprecise measure of gun sales, because they include sales of multiple weapons and concealed-carry permits for guns already owned, among other complexities.

Using background checks and other data, The Trace estimates that gun sales almost tripled between 2005 and 2020, from 7.8 million to 21.8 million. Firearm sales eased to 18.9 million in 2021 and 16.6 million in 2022. All three figures are larger than the gun-sale total for any other year in the new millennium.

“Clearly, there has been a stark increase in gun purchases, and I think a lot of these folks are new,” said Christian Heyne, vice president of policy and programs at Brady, the gun-control nonprofit.

“And I think it’s incumbent upon us to make sure that all gun owners make sure they understand the responsibility they have to safely store these weapons, and to understand the risk that is associated with having the firearm in the home in the first place.”

With the nation awash in firearms, gun deaths are rising anew. Research by Fleegler and colleagues found that firearm fatality rates increased by nearly half between 2004 and 2021.

More Americans died from gun violence in 2020 and 2021 than in any prior year on record. Gun-related homicides and suicides totaled 48,830 in 2021. Shootings of children nearly doubled during the pandemic.

“There are no two years in recorded history that I’m familiar with, going back to the 1980s, that you see such a dramatic increase” in such a short span, Fleegler said.

The nation also endured a record number of mass shootings in 2021: 690 incidents in which four or more people were shot. The Gun Violence Archive tallied 646 mass shootings in 2022.

The link between rising gun ownership and rising gun violence is hard to prove. Yet, “gun ownership rates track very closely to gun fatalities,” Fleegler said. “If you want to know where people are dying by guns, look where the guns are.”

Guns are most common in the South and least prevalent in the Northeast, a 2021 Pew analysis found. Firearms sit in around half of rural homes, two-fifths of suburban homes and 30 percent of urban dwellings, and in 40 percent of all American households.

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Nearly one-third of Americans hunted in 1977. Hunting declined over the decades, and gun ownership reached a low ebb around 2010.

Estimates vary on how many guns are circulating today in the United States, but most sources suggest guns outnumber Americans.

“There’s enthusiasts, survivalists, collectors,” Heyne said. “I think somewhere around 3 percent of the U.S. population possesses more than half of the guns in the country.”

Entertainment

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs attempting to obstruct justice from jail, prosecutors say

Published

47 mins ago

November 18, 2024

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs attempting to obstruct justice from jail, prosecutors say

Sean “Diddy” Combs has attempted to contact prospective witnesses from jail in a bid to sway public opinion ahead of his upcoming sex trafficking trial, prosecutors have claimed.

The accusations were made in a Manhattan federal court filing in which the prosecution opposes the 55-year-old rapper‘s latest $50m (£39m) bail proposal. A bail hearing is scheduled for next week.

Combs pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with the aid of a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.

He says his sexual relationships were consensual, and strenuously denies all wrongdoing.

In the latest step of the ongoing case, prosecutors say a review of recorded jail calls made by Combs shows he has asked family members to reach out to potential victims and witnesses and has urged them to create “narratives” to influence the jury pool.

They say he has also encouraged marketing strategies to influence public opinion.

The filing said: “The defendant has shown repeatedly – even while in custody – that he will flagrantly and repeatedly flout rules in order to improperly impact the outcome of his case.

“The defendant has shown, in other words, that he cannot be trusted to abide by rules or conditions.”

Prosecutors wrote that it could be inferred from his behaviour that Combs wants to blackmail victims and witnesses into silence or into providing testimony helpful to his defence.

Read more: What is Sean Combs charged with?

It is alleged that Combs began breaking rules almost as soon as he was detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York City, after his arrest in September.

Two judges have concluded he is a danger to the community and at risk of fleeing, rejecting two previous bail requests.

In Combs’s latest request, his lawyers cited changed circumstances, including new evidence, which they said made it sensible to release him ahead of his trial next year.

But prosecutors said defence lawyers created their latest bail proposal using some evidence prosecutors turned over to them, and the new material was already known to defence lawyers when they made previous bail applications.

In their submission to a judge, prosecutors said Combs’s behaviour in jail shows he must remain locked up.

They cited examples including Combs enlisting family members to plan and carry out a social media campaign around his birthday earlier this month, “with the intention of influencing the potential jury in this criminal proceeding”.

They say he encouraged his seven children to post a video to their social media accounts showing them gathered to celebrate his birthday.

Afterwards, they say he allegedly monitored the analytics, including audience engagement, from inside the jail and “explicitly discussed with his family how to ensure that the video had his desired effect on potential jury members in this case”.

Prosecutors also alleged Combs made clear his intention to anonymously publish information that he thought would help his defence team.

“The defendant’s efforts to obstruct the integrity of this proceeding also includes relentless efforts to contact potential witnesses, including victims of his abuse who could provide powerful testimony against him,” they wrote.

Sky News has contacted Combs’s lawyer for comment.

Combs is currently in custody in Manhattan. His criminal trial is scheduled for 5 May 2025.

Politics

Row over how many farms will be affected by inheritance tax policy – as PM doubles down ahead of farmers protest

Published

47 mins ago

November 18, 2024

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Row over how many farms will be affected by inheritance tax policy - as PM doubles down ahead of farmers protest

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted the “vast majority of farmers” will not be affected by changes to Inheritance Tax (IHT) ahead of a protest outside parliament on Tuesday.

It follows Chancellor Rachel Reeves announcing a 20% inheritance tax that will apply to farms worth more than £1m from April 2026, where they were previously exempt.

But the prime minister looked to quell fears as he resisted calls to change course.

Speaking from the G20 summit in Brazil, he said: “If you take a typical case of a couple wanting to pass a family farm down to one of their children, which would be a very typical example, with all of the thresholds in place, that’s £3m before any inheritance tax is paid.”

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The comments come as thousands of farmers, including celebrity farmer Jeremy Clarkson, are due to descend on Whitehall on Tuesday to protest the change.

And 1,800 more will take part in a “mass lobby” where members of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) will meet their MPs in parliament to urge them to ask Ms Reeves to reconsider the policy.

Speaking to broadcasters, Sir Keir insisted the government is supportive of farmers, pointing to a £5bn investment announced for them in the budget.

He said: “I’m confident that the vast majority of farms and farmers will not be affected at all by that aspect of the budget.

“They will be affected by the £5bn that we’re putting into farming. And I’m very happy to work with farmers on that.”

Sir Keir’s spokesman made a similar argument earlier on Monday, saying the government expects 73% of farms to not be affected by the change.

Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs Secretary Steve Reed said only about 500 out of the UK’s 209,000 farms would be affected, according to Treasury calculations.

However, that number has been questioned by several farming groups and the Conservatives.

Government figures ‘misleading’

The NFU said the real number is about two-thirds, with its president Tom Bradshaw calling the government’s figures “misleading” and accusing it of not understanding the sector.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) said the policy could affect 70,000 farms.

Conservative shadow farming minister Robbie Moore accused the government last week of “regurgitating” figures that represent “past claimants of agricultural property relief, not combined with business property relief” because he said the Treasury does not have that data.

Agricultural property relief (APR) currently provides farmers 100% relief from paying inheritance tax on agricultural land or pasture used for rearing livestock or fish, and can include woodland and buildings, such as farmhouses, if they are necessary for that land to function.

Farmers can also claim business property relief (BPR), providing 50% or 100% relief on assets used by a trading business, which for farmers could include land, buildings, plant or machinery used by the business, farm shops and holiday cottages.

APR and BPR can often apply to the same asset, especially farmed land, but APR should be the priority, however BPR can be claimed in addition if APR does not cover the full value (e.g. if the land has development value above its agricultural value).

Mr Moore said the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Treasury have disagreed on how many farms will be impacted “by as much as 40%” due to the lack of data on farmers using BPR.

Lib Dem MP Tim Farron said last week1,400 farmers in Cumbria, where he is an MP, will be affected and will not be able to afford to pay the tax as many are on less than the minimum wage despite being asset rich.

Politics

Cabinet split over assisted dying as Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson latest to reveal she will vote against bill

Published

47 mins ago

November 18, 2024

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Cabinet split over assisted dying as Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson latest to reveal she will vote against bill

A split is emerging in the cabinet, with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson revealing she will join several of her colleagues and vote against the bill to legalise assisted dying.

Ms Phillipson told Sky News she will vote against the proposed legislation at the end of this month, which would give terminally ill people with six months to live the option to end their lives.

She voted against assisted dying in 2015 and said: “I haven’t changed my mind.

“I continue to think about this deeply. But my position hasn’t changed since 2015.”

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MPs will be given a free vote on the bill, so they will not be told how to vote by their party.

The topic has seen a split in the cabinet – however, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has yet to reveal how he will vote on 29 November.

Ms Phillipson joins some other big names who have publicly said they are voting against the bill

These include Deputy PM Angela Rayner, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.

Border security minister Angela Eagle is also voting against the bill.

Senior cabinet members voting in favour of assisted dying include Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, Science Secretary Peter Kyle, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh and Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens.

The split over the issue is said to be causing friction within government, with Sir Keir rebuking the health secretary for repeatedly saying he is against the bill and for ordering officials to review the costs of implementing any changes in the law.

Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates has been told Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s chief of staff, is concerned about the politics of the bill passing.

He is understood to be worried the issue will dominate the agenda next year and, while he is not taking a view on the bill, he can see it taking over the national conversation and distracting from core government priorities like the economy and borders.

Details of the bill were published last week and include people wanting to end their life having to self-administer the medicine.

It would only be allowed for terminally ill people who have been given six months to live.

Two independent doctors would have to confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and a High Court judge would have to give their approval before it could go ahead.