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The more guns you own the more likely you are to be subject to angry outbursts that you cannot control, a new study concludes.

(The Associated Press)

The more guns you own the more likely you are to be subject to angry outbursts that you cannot control.

This conclusion about Americans and their guns comes from a study published this week in the journal Behavioral Sciences. Researchers found that some 9 percent of people in the United States have both guns and significant anger issues.

"The new research also indicates that the 310 million firearms estimated to be in private hands in the United States are disproportionately owned by people who are prone to angry, impulsive behavior and have a potentially dangerous habit of keeping their guns close at hand," the Los Angeles Times reports. "That's because people owning six or more guns were more likely to fall into both of these categories than people who owned a single gun."

The study, by psychology researchers from Duke, Harvard and other universities, states that "a large number of individuals in the United States self-report patterns of impulsive angry behavior and also possess firearms at home (8.9%) or carry guns outside the home (1.5%)."

The study's findings are drawn from in-depth interviews with 5,563 Americans over the past decade. The key conclusion is that public policymakers' focus on keeping guns from those with diagnosed mental illness does little to reduce the risks posed by the high level of private gun ownership in the United States.

"Gun violence and serious mental illness are two very important but distinct public health issues that intersect only at their edges," study author and Duke University psychiatry professor Jeffrey Swanson told the Times.

What should be done, then? Here the researchers acknowledge there are no easy political answers. The National Rifle Association has vigorously opposed new restrictions on gun ownership that were proposed in the wake of recent mass school shootings, citing "the right to bear arms" protection in the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

"Because only a small proportion of persons with this risky combination (of gun ownership and angry, impulsive behavior) have ever been involuntarily hospitalized for a mental health problem, most will not be subject to existing mental health-related legal restrictions on firearms resulting from a history of involuntary commitment," the study says. "Excluding a large proportion of the general population from gun possession is also not likely to be feasible. Behavioral risk-based approaches to firearms restriction, such as expanding the definition of gun-prohibited persons to include those with violent misdemeanor convictions and multiple DUI convictions, could be a more effective public health policy to prevent gun violence in the population."

Earlier this year, the American Bar Association, the American Public Health Association and various professional medical associations jointly declared that gun violence in the U.S. is a "public health crisis" that needed to be addressed "free of political influence." The group is seeking new gun-access restrictions that "maximize safety while being consistent with the 2nd Amendment."

-- Douglas Perry