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A new study, which will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance showed that people who are with a gun think others are too.

James Brockmole, Notre Dame Associate Professor of Psychology conducted five experiements in which subjects were shown multiple images of people on a computer screen and determined whether the person was holding a gun or a neutral object such as a soda can or cell phone. During those experiments the subjects were holding a toy gun or neutral object such as a foam ball.

Subjects who were holding a toy gun reported "gun present" more than other subjects. It indicates that people with guns are more likely to classify objects as a gun and engage in thret-induced behavior such as raising a firearm to shoot.