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As gun violence increases, more people are carrying guns every day

Research from the University of Washington suggests the number of Americans carrying handguns has doubled.

As gun violence increases, more people are carrying guns every day

[Source Photos: rawpixel and Jay Rembert/Unsplash]

BY Shalene Gupta0 minute read

The gun control debates rage on as mass shootings continue, including one last month in Virginia, but handgun owners are making their stance clear: The number of Americans carrying guns on a daily basis has doubled, according to a recent study led by ​​Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington.

Researchers surveyed 2,389 handgun owners about their gun-carrying habits over the past month. They found an estimated 6 million people carry a handgun daily, up from 3 million in 2015. Overall, the number of people carrying a handgun once a month has also increased, from 9 million in 2015 to 16 million today.

This increase is not an overnight sea change but rather a shift that’s been occurring for decades, as an increasing number of Americans move toward carrying handguns for protection, Rowhani-Rahbar told The Guardian.

In all probability, gun ownership rates are even higher. The study was conducted in 2019, but gun sales also increased during the COVID-19 era: According to research by the University of Chicago: 18% of households bought a gun and 5% of Americans bought a gun for the first time during the pandemic.

Deaths from guns have increased 43% since 2010.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shalene Gupta is a frequent contributor to Fast Company, covering Gen Z in the workplace, the psychology of money, and health business news. She is the coauthor of The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It (Public Affairs, 2021) with Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher, and is currently working on a book about severe PMS, PMDD, and PME for Flatiron More


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