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Parts of US where people owned most slaves now have most guns

More than 45 percent of the world’s civilian-owned firearms are in the US, where just five percent of the world’s people live.

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By Alice Clifford via SWNS

Gun ownership is more prevalent in areas of America that had large numbers of enslaved people before the Civil War 160 years ago, reveals a new study from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Researchers discovered that the higher percentage of enslaved people that a U.S. county counted among its residents in 1860, the more firearms its residents own today.

Study author Dr. Nick Buttrick said: “What we see is a strong correlation between the number of slaves in a county in 1860 and the number of guns there now, even after we control for variables like personal politics, crime rates, and education and income.”

The findings, published in the journal PNAS Nexus, come from a new analysis exploring why US citizens’ feelings about guns differ so much from other people around the world.

Dr. Buttrick, a Professor of psychology at University of Wisconsin, Madison, said: “Gun culture is one case where American Exceptionalism really is true.

“We are really radically different even from countries like Canada or Australia, places that have similar cultural roots.”

More than 45 percent of the world’s civilian-owned firearms are in the US, where just five percent of the world’s people live.

The Pew Research Centre survey showed that two-thirds of Americans who own guns say they own one to feel safe, while in other countries people are more likely to believe that a gun adds risk and danger to their lives.

The new study shows that before the American Civil War began in 1861 guns were seen as tools for hunting - and weren’t as relatively common as they are today.

But after the emancipation of slaves in 1863 and the Civil War, in areas where there were high numbers of enslaved people, guns became seen widely as a source of protection.

The report highlights how the idea that guns were needed for safety came from racism and racist rhetoric amongst white Southerners.

Dr. Buttrick said: “White political leaders emphasized the South was now a dangerous place uninterested in keeping white people safe.”

It led to a rise of armed white supremacist groups - such as the Ku Klux Klan - and calls to arms from leaders who urged people to further oppress black citizens.

The study suggests that the belief that guns provide safety is rooted in Southern culture in America, and is why gun ownership is so prevalent across that part of the US today.

Dr. Buttrick said: “The extent to which people feel unsafe only predicts gun ownership in counties in the South, where the more unsafe people feel, the more likely they are to own a gun.

“If you look in areas that didn’t have any slaves in the 1860s, whether people feel unsafe there today does not predict today’s county-level gun ownership.”

But he said that through people traveling, relocating and social media the sentiment has spread throughout the United States.

Dr. Buttrick said: “As people move, they bring with them the culture that formed them.

“We see the remnants of those moves and the lingering connections to family and community in people’s social media connections."

He added: "It does help make sense of why protective gun ownership is such a popular idea in the United States, but not elsewhere.”

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