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Communities affected by public mass shootings see alcohol sales increase across US

Alcohol sales spike after a public mass shooting, according to a study in PNAS Nexus. The increase in alcohol consumption could further increase firearm-related violence in affected communities.

Nicholas R. Buttrick and colleagues analyzed data from 35,000 alcohol retailers, covering more than half of all American grocery and drug-store purchases from 2006–2019, and found that a public mass shooting in a community predicts a 3.5%–5.5% increase in weekly alcohol sales for at least two years.

The effect is found for public shootings; mass shootings in private homes did not affect alcohol sales. The authors attribute the increase in alcohol consumption to the trauma or dislocation felt by members of the public in communities where shootings occurred.

According to the authors, the result may underestimate the effects of shooting-related trauma on alcohol sales because the data does not include bodegas, independent liquor stores and wineshops, bars, or restaurants. Ironically, high levels of alcohol use are associated with firearm violence, which could in turn produce yet more trauma, in what the authors term "negative spirals of violence."

The authors call for whole-community approaches to addressing the trauma of mass shootings.