Because it makes no sense. The headline is implying that drinking leads you to buying a gun directly. That’s dumb. Drinking could lead you to make reckless decisions. So, it’s possible that drinking increases your chance to make an impulse purchase, and that purchase might be a gun. But that’s not causation.
If you read the article it basically states the same thing. It basically states that drinking can increase violence, and drinking can also lead to unsafe handling of firearms. So, the cause of violence here is alcohol.
And the final nail in the coffin is the following quote: “The authors say their findings can inform strategies to discourage drinking and thereby decrease the likelihood of handgun-carrying among youth and young adults in rural areas.” So, the goal isn’t to decrease violence. It’s to decrease handgun carrying among young adults.
Also, a sample size of 2000 12-26 year olds? That’s about 142 per age, which is not too bad, but in my opinion 12-17, 18-20, 21-26 are vastly different groups. They themselves state that 19-26 is where the most drinking/gun owning occurs, which makes sense. That’s when you are allowed to legally purchase a gun and that’s when you and your friends start to drink. You could say the same thing about owning a car. But if I told you that drinking is linked to purchasing a car, you’d think that’s stupid.