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Self-Protection versus Fear of Stricter Firearm Regulations: Examining the Drivers of Firearm Acquisitions in the Aftermath of a Mass Shooting
Discovering causal mechanisms underlying firearm acquisition can provide critical insight into firearm-related violence in the United States. Here, we established an information-theoretic framework to address the long-disputed dichotomy between self-protection and fear of firearm regulations as pote...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7660383/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33205129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2020.100082 |
Sumario: | Discovering causal mechanisms underlying firearm acquisition can provide critical insight into firearm-related violence in the United States. Here, we established an information-theoretic framework to address the long-disputed dichotomy between self-protection and fear of firearm regulations as potential drivers of firearm acquisition in the aftermath of a mass shooting. We collected data on mass shootings, federal background checks, media output on firearm control and shootings, and firearm safety laws from 1999 to 2017. First, we conducted a cluster analysis to partition States according to the restrictiveness of their firearm-related legal environment. Then, we performed a transfer entropy analysis to unveil causal relationships at the State-level in the Wiener-Granger sense. The analysis suggests that fear of stricter firearm regulations is a stronger driver than the desire of self-protection for firearm acquisitions. This fear is likely to cross State borders, thereby shaping a collective pattern of firearm acquisition throughout the Nation. |
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