Professor: ‘Remarkable’ that Americans Buy Guns for Self-Defense After Attacks

Stanford University professor David Studdert says it is “remarkable” that Americans buy guns for self-defense following an attack like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary or the December 2, 2015, attack in San Bernardino.

Studdert led a study on handgun purchases, wherein researchers sought “a more detailed understanding” of why Americans flock to gun stores following such events.

According to KPBS, the study is focused on handgun sales throughout California, records of which are readily accessible because of the state’s record-keeping, gun control laws. Those records showed that handgun sales “rose by 53 percent during the six weeks after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School,” even though that attack was in Newtown, Connecticut. And after the San Bernardino attack, handgun sales went up roughly 35 percent throughout California but rose 85 percent in San Bernardino County.

Studdert described gun purchasing at such levels as “a remarkable response.”  He added, “When we see shocks that stimulate gun purchasing like this, it causes concern that there may be a feedback loop. With additional gun purchases come additional concerns about security, and that prompts more people to buy weapons, and so on.”

It is interesting to see that many of the handgun purchasers who buy in the days and weeks after mass attacks are “first gun buyers.” And Studdert says “women proportionally increase to a larger extent” among the buyers flocking to gun stores as well.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.