CSDE Alum Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz’s Study On Firearms And Covid-19 Makes News!

Posted: 11/9/2020 (CSDE in the News and CSDE Research)

CSDE Alum Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, along with coauthors at UC Davis, recently published an article on MedRxiv examining gun sales and violence during the Covid-19 pandemic. The article received significant attention in the media. Using cross-sectional data from the California Safety and Wellbeing Survey, the authors estimate that 110,000 people in California bought guns this year because they were worried about the destabilizing effects of the pandemic. Their findings suggest that roughly 55,000 additional households in California now have a loaded firearm within reach of unauthorized users. About half of those who acknowledged such a switch lived in homes with children or teens. The study concludes that by aggravating “poverty, unemployment, lack of resources, isolation, hopelessness and loss” the pandemic has worsened many of the underlying conditions contributing to violence.