“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, but instead put everyone in the household at increased risk of injury.3
“The police picked him up from his high school after a terrified student told her principal he had threatened to slit her throat. She showed them his Instagram, where he had posted pictures of the Charleston Church shooter with the word “hero” underneath it, and a picture of their science lab with the caption “Columbine 2.0”. The officers didn’t find any guns or explosives, and couldn’t arrest him for the alleged threats, since the girl was too scared to be interviewed.
“This past month, 11 Jewish people were shot at a synagogue by a man who had posted anti-Semitic comments online. Two African-American people were murdered at a grocery store by a gunman who had just tried and failed to enter a black church. Twelve people were shot and killed at a Thousand Oaks nightclub. Like clockwork, public speculation about the presumed mental illness of the shooters unfolded soon thereafter.
“SACRAMENTO — A few years ago, the police brought a 21-year-old man into the crisis unit where I work as an emergency psychiatrist...” Continue reading
