Black adults – particularly Black women – with higher levels of education and experiences of discrimination and crime are more likely to own a firearm, according to a study by the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers. In a new study appearing in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, researchers found that Black adults who endorsed firearm ownership were more likely to grow up in homes with firearms, had previously shot a firearm and planned to acquire a firearm in the coming year.
“The higher rates of firearm ownership among highly educated Black women were somewhat surprising to us,” said Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and senior author of the study. “This might reflect a broader shift toward women and persons of color purchasing firearms across the United States in recent years, perhaps as a reaction not only to the turmoil of the pandemic era, but also to frequent highly publicized episodes of police brutality against Black men and women and the surge of gun violence witnessed across the U.S. during that time.” To read the full story.