Many Americans who recently bought guns open to political violence, survey finds

Members of the ‘boogaloo boys’ join other gun rights advocates in Richmond, Virginia, on 18 January 2021. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Large numbers of Americans who have bought guns over the past four years or who regularly carry their loaded weapons in public are willing to engage in political violence, even to the extent of shooting a perceived opponent, a new mega-survey has found.

The study of almost 13,000 Americans, drawn from across the US and weighted for demographics, provides alarming evidence of the openness of certain types of gun owners to the idea – and possibly the practice – of violence as a political act.