Emily Chan
As the start of deer hunting season approaches, Americans look forward to spending time in cooler weather and enjoying fresh venison.
However, this period of time also means there is an increased presence of loaded guns in homes and vehicles, leading to a rise in gun injuries and homicides throughout rural America.
According to Patrick Sharkey, the leader of the study and a professor of sociology at Princeton University in New Jersey, there has long been a link between a greater availability of guns and higher rates of gun violence.
The research team believed the start of deer hunting season was the best time to test out the theory, as millions of hunters across the United States bring their guns out of storage.
“More people were killed by gunfire in the first week of deer hunting season than in any other week of the calendar year,” Sharkey said.
When they factored out gun deaths associated with hunting accidents, which were incredibly rare, they found that the results still held true. The team examined statistics collected between 2014 and 2021 on gun shootings that took place in 854 rural U.S. counties across 44 states.
They calculated the rate of shootings during the week before deer hunting season began in each county. Then, they compared those numbers to shootings that occurred during the first three weeks of the hunting season.
The researchers discovered that firearm shootings resulting in the injuries or deaths of county residents skyrocketed by an average of 49 percent during the first week of the season compared to shootings the week before.
During the second week, the rate was still 41 percent higher, but by the third week, the increase dropped to “close to zero.” Sharkey and colleagues noted that the dramatic rise and fall over the first three weeks was not surprising when taking previous shooting trends into account.
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