Evaluation of impulsivity, aggression, alexithymia, and personality traits in persons applying to hospitals to obtain weapon license

Evaluation of Impulsivity, Aggression, Alexithymia, and Personality Traits in Persons Applying to Hospitals to Obtain Weapon License Nowadays, the increase in individual armament poses a great problem both in our society and in the world. The increase in armament and the possession of a gun at home increase the rates of suicides, accidents and domestic violence. It is known that the society in Turkey generally has a tendency towards firearms. Every individual who wishes to possess or carry a gun in Turkey must obtain a gun license. Personality consists of the patterns of affect, thinking and behavior that the individual has developed to adapt to the inner and outer world based on the person cognitive and emotional evaluations. Personality disorder is defined as a continuous cognitive, affective and behavioral pattern that deviates significantly from the expectations of the culture in which the person lives. Personality disorders were first included in a separate axis in DSM-III. In our thesis study, 132 cases and 69 healthy controls were compared. Our case group consists of applicants for obtaining a gun license, armed private security guards and village guards. All participants were evaluated in terms of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. When both groups were compared, significant differences were found in terms of Barratt total score, cognitive dysregulation, impatience, auto-control, attentional impulsivity and unplanned impulsivity subscale scores. When Buss Perry scale scores were compared, the anger score of the control group was found to be significantly higher than the case group. When the MMPI profiles were evaluated, the male-female index was statistically significantly higher in the control group than in the case group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in alexithymia scale scores. The limited number of participants, the unequal number of case and control groups, the unequal male-female ratios are the limitations of our study. We believe that the data we presented will be presented better with studies in which the number of participants is higher. Keywords: Gun license, Personality Disorders, Violence, Private security