Gun ownership and social gun culture Kalesan, Bindu; Villarreal, Marcos D; Keyes, Katherine M ...
Injury prevention,
06/2016, Letnik:
22, Številka:
3
Journal Article
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We assessed gun ownership rates in 2013 across the USA and the association between exposure to a social gun culture and gun ownership. We used data from a nationally representative sample of 4000 US ...adults, from 50 states and District of Columbia, aged >18 years to assess gun ownership and social gun culture performed in October 2013. State-level firearm policy information was obtained from the Brady Law Center and Injury Prevention and Control Center. One-third of Americans reported owning a gun, ranging from 5.2% in Delaware to 61.7% in Alaska. Gun ownership was 2.25-times greater among those reporting social gun culture (PR=2.25, 95% CI 2.02 to 2.52) than those who did not. In conclusion, we found strong association between social gun culture and gun ownership. Gun cultures may need to be considered for public health strategies that aim to change gun ownership in the USA.
Five teams of FACTS researchers conducted a series of rigorous scoping reviews of the existing published scientific literature from the fields of medicine, public health, psychology, behavioral ...health, and criminology from January of 1985 through April of 2018 utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Scoping Reviews (Tricco et al., Ann Intern Med 169:467–473,
2018
) framework to guide the search strategy, study selection, data abstraction, and analysis process. These scoping reviews characterize the existing scientific literature in five key areas related to Firearm Injury Prevention among children and adolescents (age 0–17): (1) Adolescent Firearm Carriage; (2) Risk and Protective Factors for Firearm Injury; (3) Primary Prevention Initiatives; (4) Long-term consequences and secondary prevention of negative outcomes after a firearm injury; and, (5) Effects of existing law and policy interventions on pediatric firearm outcomes. In this special issue of the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, we present these five scoping review articles.
Firearms are used in around 25% of homicides in Europe. More so than other weapons commonly used in violent encounters, firearms have the ability to inflict lethal injuries. Yet, theoretical ...approaches to understanding the impact of firearms on the prevalence, lethality, and nature of violent encounters are scarce and have been developed almost exclusively within and for the context of the United States, where the levels of firearm violence and firearm availability are much higher than in Europe, limiting their applicability to the European context. To address this issue, European empirical data are reviewed in this paper to critically assess the few existing theoretical approaches focusing on the use of firearms in lethal and non-lethal violence. Based on the obtained findings, future directions for empirical research, as well as suggestions for new conceptualizations of firearm violence in Europe are presented.
Youth gun carrying is associated with a range of adverse outcomes, including increased risks for homicide, suicide, school disciplinary problems, and criminal legal involvement. In this study we ...examined the association between state‐level household firearm ownership rates and the odds of past‐year gun carrying among high‐school‐aged youth. Using survey‐weighted multivariable logistic regression models, results showed that each 1% point increase in state‐level gun ownership was associated with a 2.7% (95% confidence interval CI = 1.1%, 4.2%, p = 0.001) increased odds of youth gun carrying, controlling for histories of school‐based victimization, physical fighting, and substance use. Among a subset of weapon‐carrying youth, state‐level firearm availability was a significant factor in determining whether the weapon carried was a gun or a less lethal (i.e., nonfirearm) weapon (odds ratio = 1.021, 95% CI = 1.005, 1.038, p = 0.01). These findings show that firearm availability confers additional risk for youth gun carrying beyond the psychosocial risks emphasized in prior research and efforts to restrict youth access to firearms might be particularly important, especially in communities with high levels of household gun ownership.
Abstract
The United States faces rapidly rising rates of violent crime committed with firearms. In this study, we sought to estimate the impact of changes to laws that regulate the concealed carrying ...of weapons (concealed-carry weapons (CCW) laws) on violent crimes committed with a firearm. We used augmented synthetic control models and random-effects meta-analyses to estimate state-specific effects and the average effect of adopting shall-issue CCW permitting laws on rates of 6 violent crimes: homicide with a gun, homicide by other means, aggravated assault with a gun, aggravated assault with a knife, robbery with a gun, and robbery with a knife. The average effects were stratified according to the presence or absence of several shall-issue permit provisions. Adoption of a shall-issue CCW law was associated with a 9.5% increase in rates of assault with a firearm during the first 10 years after law adoption and was associated with an 8.8% increase in rates of homicide by other means. When shall-issue laws allowed violent misdemeanants to acquire CCW permits, the laws were associated with higher rates of gun assaults. It is likely that adoption of shall-issue CCW laws has increased rates of nonfatal violent crime committed with firearms. Harmful effects of shall-issue laws are most clear when provisions intended to reduce risks associated with civilian gun-carrying are absent.
In the USA, homicide is a leading cause of death for young males and a major cause of racial disparities in life expectancy for men. There are intense debate and little rigorous research on the ...effects of firearm sales regulation on homicides. This study estimates the impact of Missouri’s 2007 repeal of its permit-to-purchase (PTP) handgun law on states’ homicide rates and controls for changes in poverty, unemployment, crime, incarceration, policing levels, and other policies that could potentially affect homicides. Using death certificate data available through 2010, the repeal of Missouri’s PTP law was associated with an increase in annual firearm homicides rates of 1.09 per 100,000 (+23 %) but was unrelated to changes in non-firearm homicide rates. Using Uniform Crime Reporting data from police through 2012, the law’s repeal was associated with increased annual murders rates of 0.93 per 100,000 (+16 %). These estimated effects translate to increases of between 55 and 63 homicides per year in Missouri.
Few studies have examined the impact of interstate differences in firearm laws on state-level firearm mortality. We aim to study the association between neighboring states' firearm legislation and ...firearm-related crude death rate (CDR).
The CDC Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System was queried for adult all-intent (accidental, suicide, and homicide) firearm-related CDR among the 50 states from 2012 to 2020. States were divided into five cohorts based on the Giffords Law Center Annual Gun Law Scorecard, and two groups were constructed: Strict (A, B, C) and Lenient (D, F). We examined the effect of (1) a single incongruent neighbor, defined as "Different" if the state is bordered by ≥1 state with a grade score difference >1, and (2) the average grade of all neighboring states, defined as "Different" if the average of all neighboring states resulted in a grade score difference >1.
Strict states with similar average neighbors had significantly lower CDR compared with Strict states with different average neighbors (2.98 1.91-5.06 vs. 3.87 2.37-5.94, p = 0.02), while Lenient states with similar average neighbors had significantly higher CDR compared with Lenient states with different average neighbors (6.02 4.56-8.11 vs. 4.7 3.95-5.35, p = 0.002). Lenient states surrounded by all similar Lenient states had the highest CDR, which was significantly higher than Lenient states with ≥1 different neighbor (6.52 5.09-8.96 vs. 5.19 3.85-6.61, p < 0.001). However, Strict states with ≥1 different neighbor did not have higher CDR compared with Strict states surrounded by all similar Strict states (3.39 2.17-5.35 vs. 3.14 1.91-5.38, p = 0.5).
We report a lopsided neighboring effect whereby Lenient states may benefit from at least one Strict neighbor, while Strict states may be adversely affected only when surrounded by mostly Lenient neighbors. These findings may assist policymakers regarding the efficacy of their own state's legislation in the context of incongruent neighboring states.
Prognostic and Epidemiological; Level IV.
The United States is distinct among high-income countries for its problem with gun violence, with Americans 25 times more likely to be killed by gun homicide than people in other high-income ...countries.
Suicides make up a majority of annual gun deaths - though that gap is closing as homicides are on the rise - and the U.S. accounts for 35% of global firearm suicides despite making up only 4% of the world's population.
More concerning, gun deaths are only getting worse. In 2021, firearm fatalities approached 50,000, the highest we have seen in at least 40 years.
The increase in homicides in conjunction with lower crime overall further suggests an problem specifically with guns.
As devastating as these deaths are, it does not come close to encompassing the mass toll of America's gun violence epidemic - a toll that disproportionately impacts people of color, with the Black community suffering at the highest rates. A broader and more accurate view of what constitutes gun violence must become a part of the national discourse if we are going to develop effective strategies to combat this crisis.
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