Roughly 10 percent of Americans have a history of violent, angry behavior and access to firearms, according to a new study in Behavioral Sciences and the Law. Since most gun crimes are committed by violent people with no history of mental illness, the authors argue that current gun control laws must be revised.

Gun violence in the United States contributed to nearly 12,000 deaths in 2012, but prior studies have shown that only 4 percent of gun murders are committed by people diagnosed with mental illnesses. Substance abuse and anger issues, scientists say, are much better predictors of gun violence than psychopathy.

More Mental Illness Is Unfairly Scapegoated In Mass Shootings

In this study, researchers analyzed transcripts from the National Comorbidity Study Replication—a series of in-person interviews, conducted between 2001 and 2003, with 5,000 adults—where participants answered questions about gun ownership, and whether they agreed with statements like, “I lose my temper and get into physical fights.” The results: about 10 percent of Americans have a history of impulsive, angry behavior and at least one gun at home, while nearly 1.5 percent of the population (4.8 million people) have anger issues and carry guns outside their homes.

Only a small proportion of violent, angry people are involuntarily hospitalized for mental health problems. That means members of this high-risk demographic are often free to purchase firearms, while mental health patients—who virtually never commit violent crimes—are blacklisted.

The authors have urged policymakers to revise current restrictions to target people with violent misdemeanors and histories of substance abuse. “The criteria that we have now are too broad and too narrow at the same time,” says Duke psychiatry professor Jeffrey Swanson, a lead author on the study. “We identify people with remote histories of involuntary commitment, while impulsive, angry people—the kind of people who smash and break things and get into physical fights—they can buy guns.”

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Resolution on Firearm Violence Research and Prevention (American Psychological Association)

What Happens When A Mentally Ill Person Tries To Buy A Gun (Vocativ)