76 What we’ve become: living and dying in a world of arms

Abstract EP2.4, e-Poster Terminal 2, September 4, 2025, 11:35 - 12:55 Aims This research tracks how global proliferation of civilian-owned firearms and US-style permissive gun laws threaten health, equity, and democratic governance in growing numbers of locales worldwide, and how global migrations of guns effect migrations of people. Methods The presentation builds on a recent award-winning book by the author showing how permissive gun laws and dramatic expansions in gun sales lead to profound, and profoundly unequal negative health effects in the US. More guns and loose laws lead to racial and ethnic inequities in safety and security, and empower conservative governance. The current project uses social science, political science, and historical methods to study ways that the US/NRA model goes global—highlighting data and interviews in the US, Middle East, Mexico, and Brazil. Results Permissive gun laws and civilian-owned firearms undermine efforts to promote equity and public health in growing numbers of locales globally. Potential security benefits to arming civilians are often counterbalanced by rising everyday gun-related injuries and deaths. Gun politics can also be tribalizing, divisive, even antidemocratic. As the author writes, these findings expose “what happens to the soul of a nation—and the meanings of safety and community—when we normalize violence as an acceptable trade-off for freedom.” More guns and weaker gun laws also undermine public-health infrastructure and shape nationalism and anti-immigrant politics—findings supported by the author’s research on the Israeli right and recent research on US-Mexico gun migration patterns. Conclusions This research speaks directly to the conference sub-theme of Conflict and Peacebuilding. Peace becomes ever-more-elusive when governments encourage citizens to take law-and-order and lethal force it no their own hands. The paper concludes by laying out the vital need for global coordination among gun safety organizations.