When it comes to fighting crime and improving public safety, the gun control lobby tends to fall back on the premise that the only way to succeed is to go after the guns. Even as groups like Everytown, Brady, and Giffords have embraced community-based violence intervention programs that don't depend or rely on new gun control laws, they still devote most of their time and energy on policies designed to curb legal gun ownership.
Community violence interruption... as in those efforts that actually address those responsible for violence instead of criminalizing the right to keep and bear arms?
— Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) August 5, 2026
I'm always intrigued, then, when gun control advocates do step outside their lane and offer up an idea to reduce crime without gutting our Second Amendment rights. If a new study highlighted by The Trace is to be believed, reducing our guts might also have a big impact on violent crime rates.
The study was conducted by Rutgers University researcher Daniel Semenza, who says he became curious about the effects of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy on violent behavior after listening to a podcast that delved into the drugs' apparent ability to increase impulse control and reduce both impulsive and compulsive behavior. Could that also be true for violent behavior, he wondered.
According to Semenza, there does appear to be a connection.
The association between impulsivity and violence was about 62 percent weaker among current users of the medications than among former users, according to the study. The association between alcohol use and violence was about 52 percent weaker.
The findings are a preliminary look at GLP-1s and violence and do not necessarily suggest that GLP-1 drugs make people less impulsive, Semenza said. Instead, the medications may affect whether an impulsive tendency turns into an aggressive or violent reaction.
“Their impulsivity isn’t necessarily going away, but that impulsivity isn’t turning into such a reaction that they are then reporting they’re engaging in violence,” Semenza said.
There are some caveats to Semenza's research. His study involved a sample size of just over 800 people, about 600 of whom were current users. The study also relied on the honesty of the research subjects, who were supposed to self-report any violent behavior over the previous 12 months.
Semenza, who's the research director at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center, was also careful to caution that, even though this study indicates that the use of GLP-1 drugs might help people who struggle with impulsive behavior that includes violence, there's still plenty of other work to be done.
Poverty, unemployment, inequality, and neighborhood disadvantage remain central drivers of violence, he said. “I would never advocate for medicalizing violence as a social problem,” he said.
It's interesting that he didn't include firearms availability in his "central drivers of violence," and I find it downright fascinating that he says he would never advocate for "medicalizing violence as a social problem" when the gun control lobby is leaning in so heavily on the idea that "gun violence" (and gun ownership) is a public health crisis. That, to me, seems the very essence of what Semenza says he would never do. If he's sincere, then he's at odds with the vast majority of gun control advocates.
I think Semenza is right to focus on behavior, though. A gun doesn't pull its trigger all by itself, after all. And some research suggests that as much as 90 percent of violent crime can be attributed in some degree to impulsive behavior. Other research indicates that around half of all suicides are impulsive, so if we're looking to reduce both incidents of self-harm and harm to others, focusing on impulsivity would be a much more fruitful endeavor than passing laws aimed at reducing gun ownership or turning an enumerated right into a criminal offense.
I don't necessarily like the idea of using drugs as a crutch or replacement for self-control, but this still seems like an interesting avenue of research. Don't expect Michael Bloomberg's gun control group to change its name to Everytown for Gut Safety anytime soon, though. Even when research points away from gun control as a solution for violent crime, the billionaire anti-gun activists like Bloomberg will always find a way to make it about you, me, and our right to keep and bear arms.
