Spike in violent crime follows rise in gun-buying amid social upheaval

[billh58]

July 15, 2020 at 6:33 a.m. HST

Americans purchased millions more guns than usual this spring, spurred in large part by racial animosity stoked by widespread protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as well as anxiety over the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.

That gun-buying binge is associated with a significant increase in gun violence across the United States.

Those are the conclusions of two studies by the Brookings Institution and the University of California at Davis, respectively. Together, they paint a portrait of a society arming itself against social upheaval during a time of institutional failure.

The Brookings study, after examining federal background check data, estimated an additional 3 million firearms were sold from March through June, compared with the same period in previous years. That’s roughly equivalent to the spike in gun purchases observed following the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting and more than 50 percent higher than would have been expected for June sales.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/15/gun-sales-jump-protests-coronavirus/

Of particular note is a statement further on in the article: "The 2020 gun surge is different in at least one other respect: Purchases have been higher in states with greater levels of racial animus. Levine and McKnight approximated state-level racism using data on Google searches for the n-word, an approach used by social scientists in the past."

It appears that states with the highest number of guns and gun violence incidents, also have greater levels of racism. But the bottom line is obvious: more guns equals more violence and more deaths. A common factor running through this increase in overt racism and gun hoarding is fear -- fear of the "other," and fear of the unknown. Trump and his QAnon base fit this demographic to a tee.