Researchers Track How the 2024 Presidential Election Changed Behaviors Around Firearms
A Rutgers Health study highlights an increased desire among specific groups to obtain firearms, carry them and store them more accessibly
Firearm purchasing patterns can shift in response to specific events, including presidential elections, according to Rutgers Health researchers.
A study by researchers with the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center examined what extent specific groups changed their intentions and behaviors related to firearms directly in response to the 2024 presidential election by assessing a nationally representative sample of 1,530 adults in the two weeks before the election and then again in the first two weeks of 2025.
In the study, published in Injury Epidemiology, the authors found survey participants identifying as Black reported increased intentions to purchase firearms in the coming year as well as an increased desire to carry firearms because of the results of the presidential election.
Additionally, liberal beliefs were associated with greater increases in impulses to carry firearms and to store firearms in a more quickly accessible manner because of the results of the presidential election.