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Over 19 Million Americans Have Had This Violent Thought, Scientists Say

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If anything is to be done about the shockingly high gun violence statistics in the United States, we should probably start by not focusing on the act itself, but rather the lead-up to it. A new study published in JAMA Network Open is a step in that direction, as it quantifies a rather disturbing and previously nebulous thought: how many American adults have, at some point, seriously thought about shooting someone?

That answer is roughly 7.3 percent of the population, or 19.3 million American adults, according to researchers from the University of Michigan.

The researchers were sure to frame the question to study participants as a serious consideration, not just a fleeting moment of rage, making it all the more disturbing. To add even more disconcerting feelings on top of it, about 8.5 million of those people reported having those thoughts within the past year.

A smaller but still pretty big group went beyond just thinking about it, with 4 million people having considered buying a gun with the specific intent to shoot someone, and another 1.5 million said they had brought a firearm to a location with the intent to use it on someone.

Younger Americans Are More Likely to Think About Shooting Someone

Demographically, men reported these thoughts more often than women, and younger adults more often than older adults. Rates were higher among Black respondents in urban areas with some regional variation. Gun ownership had no meaningful link to whether a person had these thoughts, and neither did political affiliation.

As for who respondents wanted to shoot, they were often someone in their personal lives, but not always. Just a smidge over half of the respondents who considered shooting someone nebulously described that person as “an enemy.” A quarter of the respondents said they thought about shooting a stranger. A smattering of respondents named government officials, family members, police, or their partners.

All this is rather bleak, but it does have one silver lining: about one in five people who had these thoughts told someone else about it, meaning there is a tiny window where someone can act and prevent them from acting on the impulse. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of those who were told took those steps.

That gap is crucial because that’s where prevention happens.

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