Study: Access To Guns, Not Mental Health, May Be Responsible For Gun Violence

Study: Access To Guns, Not Mental Health, May Be Responsible For Gun Violence

Posted on February 7, 2019

Reports that up to 40,000 Americans die from firearms every year and mental illness is often blamed, but a new study from the University of Texas says don’t blame mental illness, blame access to guns. They surveyed more than 600 young adults and found that the majority of the mental health symptoms examined were not related to gun violence. Instead, they found that people who simply had access to a gun were 18 times more likely to have threatened someone with a firearm compared to people who had no such access.