{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,2]],"date-time":"2026-07-02T01:15:04Z","timestamp":1782954904840,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,29]],"date-time":"2023-08-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1693267200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000027","name":"National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["AA024433"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AA024433"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000027","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:p>There was a large spike in gun purchases and gun violence during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We used an online U.S. national survey (<jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic> = 1036) to examine the characteristics of people who purchased a gun between March 2020 and October 2021 (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic> = 103) and compared them to non-gun owners (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic> = 763) and people who own a gun but did not purchase a gun during the COVID-19 pandemic (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic> = 170). Compared to non-gun owners, pandemic gun buyers were younger and more likely to be male, White race, and to affiliate with the Republican party. Compared to non-gun owners and pre-pandemic gun owners, pandemic gun buyers exhibited extreme elevations on a constellation of political (QAnon beliefs, pro-gun attitudes, Christian Nationalism, approval of former President Donald Trump, anti-vax beliefs, COVID-19 skepticism; mean Cohen\u2019s <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic> = 1.15), behavioral (intimate partner violence, antisocial behavior; mean <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic> = 1.38), mental health (suicidality, depression, anxiety, substance use; mean <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic> = 1.21), and personality (desire for power, belief in a dangerous world, low agreeableness, low conscientiousness; mean <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic> = 0.95) characteristics. In contrast, pre-pandemic gun owners only endorsed more pro-gun attitudes (<jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic> = 0.67), lower approval of President Joe Biden (<jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic> = -0.41) and were more likely to be male and affiliate with the Republican party relative to non-gun owners. Pandemic gun buyers represent an extreme group in terms of political and psychological characteristics including several risk-factors for violence and self-harm.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0290770","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,29]],"date-time":"2023-08-29T17:50:29Z","timestamp":1693331429000},"page":"e0290770","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Who bought a gun during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States?: Associations with QAnon beliefs, right-wing political attitudes, intimate partner violence, antisocial behavior, suicidality, and mental health and substance use problems"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9528-6771","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Brian M.","family":"Hicks","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6038-9394","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Catherine","family":"Vitro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elizabeth","family":"Johnson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4837-9534","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Carter","family":"Sherman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mary M.","family":"Heitzeg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"C. Emily","family":"Durbin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Edelyn","family":"Verona","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,29]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0290770.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"131","DOI":"10.1086\/713035","article-title":"Pandemics, protests, and firearms","volume":"7","author":"BJ Lang","year":"2021","journal-title":"American Journal of Health Economics"},{"issue":"7","key":"pone.0290770.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"593","DOI":"10.1080\/09540261.2021.1901669","article-title":"Gun purchasing behaviours during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, March to mid-July 2020.","volume":"33","author":"CK Crifasi","year":"2021","journal-title":"International review of psychiatry."},{"key":"pone.0290770.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101634","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pmedr.2021.101634","article-title":"Modeling recent gun purchases: A social epidemiology of the pandemic arms race.","volume":"24","author":"TD Hill","year":"2021","journal-title":"Preventive medicine reports."},{"issue":"9","key":"pone.0290770.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2125388","DOI":"10.1001\/jamanetworkopen.2021.25388","article-title":"Mass shootings in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"4","author":"PA Pe\u00f1a","year":"2021","journal-title":"JAMA network open"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0290770.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"14","DOI":"10.15585\/mmwr.mm7101a3","article-title":"Firearm Homicides and Suicides in Major Metropolitan Areas\u2014United States, 2015\u20132016 and 2018\u20132019.","volume":"71","author":"SR Kegler","year":"2022","journal-title":"Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report"},{"issue":"4","key":"pone.0290770.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e229393","DOI":"10.1001\/jamanetworkopen.2022.9393","article-title":"Analysis of firearm violence during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US","volume":"5","author":"S Sun","year":"2022","journal-title":"JAMA network open"},{"issue":"5","key":"pone.0290770.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"690","DOI":"10.1177\/0003134820954827","article-title":"New York state and the nation: trends in firearm Purchases and firearm violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.","volume":"87","author":"MR Donnelly","year":"2021","journal-title":"The American Surgeon."},{"key":"pone.0290770.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101783","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jcrimjus.2021.101783","article-title":"When COVID-19 and guns meet: A rise in shootings","volume":"73","author":"DY Kim","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journal of Criminal Justice"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0290770.ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e000801","DOI":"10.1136\/tsaco-2021-000801","article-title":"Examining trends in gun violence injuries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across six trauma centers","volume":"7","author":"C McGraw","year":"2022","journal-title":"Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0290770.ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1542\/peds.2020-042697","article-title":"Firearms injuries involving young children in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"148","author":"JS Cohen","year":"2021","journal-title":"Pediatrics"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0290770.ref011","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/s40621-021-00339-5","article-title":"Firearm purchasing and firearm violence during the coronavirus pandemic in the United States: a cross-sectional study.","volume":"8","author":"JP Schleimer","year":"2021","journal-title":"Injury epidemiology."},{"issue":"11","key":"pone.0290770.ref012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2098","DOI":"10.2105\/AJPH.2013.301409","article-title":"The relationship between gun ownership and firearm homicide rates in the United States, 1981\u20132010.","volume":"103","author":"M Siegel","year":"2013","journal-title":"American journal of public health."},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0290770.ref013","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"455","DOI":"10.1111\/soin.12410","article-title":"Who might buy a gun? 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