Not one, not two, but… roughly six million Americans walked around with a loaded gun every day in 2019, double the number in 2015.

According to Ali Rouhani Rahbar, professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington and leader of the study, which was published in the American Journal of Public Health, more Americans are admitting that they own guns for self-defense and not for hunting or for any other reason, and therefore they choose to carry them. with them when they go out in public.

In particular, about a third of gun owners, that is, about 16 million adults, walk with a loaded revolver in a public place at least once a month, and those who say they do it every day are estimated at 6 million people.

Rapid carrying of weapons in public places

These figures clearly prove that the carrying of weapons in public places has been growing rapidly in recent years. In fact, taking into account a study published in 2015 by the same researchers and based on the same methodology, this number has doubled in the US.

“Today, the number of adults who carry guns every day is probably even higher than the 2019 estimate, mainly due to record growth in gun sales during the pandemic,” Rahbar said, adding that “we have every reason to believe that this is a trend that is likely to continue.”

More research is needed into how often guns are used as a means of self-defense, according to the Guardian.

A 2019 survey found that the majority of people who carry guns in public were in the south, with four out of five gun carriers being male and three out of four being white, Rahbar said.

The fact that more and more US states are enacting laws making it easier to carry firearms in public places is causing this phenomenon to increase. Added to this is the decision of a number of states to completely abolish the “gun license”.

“Weakening of gun laws has been evident in the US over the past two to three decades,” Rahbar concludes.

Source: Guardian