Access to Guns in the Heat of the Moment: More Restrictive Gun Laws Mitigate the Effect of Temperature on Violence

Jonathan Colmer () and Jennifer Doleac ()
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Jennifer Doleac: Texas A&M University

No 16247, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Gun violence is a major problem in the United States, and extensive prior work has shown that higher temperatures increase violent behavior. In this paper, we consider whether restricting the concealed carry of firearms mitigates or exacerbates the effect of temperature on violence. We use two identification strategies that exploit daily variation in temperature and variation in gun control policies between and within states. Our findings suggest that more prohibitive concealed carry laws attenuate the temperature–homicide relationship. Additional results suggest that restrictions primarily decrease the lethality of temperature–driven violent crimes, rather than their overall occurrence, but may be less effective at reducing access to guns in more urban areas.

Keywords: crime; temperature; right-to-carry; homicide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 K42 Q51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 67 pages
Date: 2023-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law and nep-ure
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Published - published online in: Review of Economics and Statistics , 29 November 2023

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Related works:
Working Paper: Access to guns in the heat of the moment: more restrictive gun laws mitigate the effect of temperature on violence (2023)
Working Paper: Access to Guns in the Heat of the Moment: More Restrictive Gun Laws Mitigate the Effect of Temperature on Violence (2023)
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