Our paper aims to describe firearm-related behavior among American households and to quantify the influence of household characteristics on the probability of firearms possession and storage ...practices. Applying logistic regression techniques to data from the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), we use separate models to estimate the effect of an array of respondent demographic characteristics factors on the likelihood that households will have a gun at home and, if so, whether they will keep it at either of two levels of risk. We find that rates of firearm ownership vary widely by household characteristics, including the state in which they reside. Simultaneously controlling for all of these factors scarcely diminishes variation in odds for ownership. Differences in the likelihood that owners will store guns unsafely are narrower and significant for fewer factors. Having children in the home scarcely affects the propensity to possess firearms but greatly reduces the chances a domestic firearm will be stored loaded and unsecured. Our findings support a consensus on the demographics of ownership but show more and stronger predictors of storage behavior than previous work. Differing dynamics of ownership and storage reveal the existence of two regional gun cultures. From these findings, we conclude that to mitigate mortality risks associated with guns in the home, encouraging safer storage by owners may be as effective as controlling sales. States and localities should test a range of promising but largely unproven interventions.
•Over 100 million Americans lived in households with guns.•10 million, including 2.3 million children, are exposed to a loaded, unsecured gun.•Exposure varies greatly by household characteristics and where households reside.•Risky storage is not tied to ownership rates, except in Southern states.
Highlights • The challenges associated with GSR are moving from analysis to interpretation • Bayesian reasoning could allow for evaluation of evidence in regards to activity • This will allow for an ...evaluation that is aligned to judicial & investigative aims
Objective
The present study sought to better understand the characteristics of those who own firearms in the Black community; and to understand how Black firearm owners differ from nonfirearm owning ...Black individuals on a variety of variables related to safety, threat concerns, and suicide risk.
Methods
Two samples were utilized in this study. The first was a subsample of those who identified as Black from a nationally representative sample (N = 502) seeking to understand firearm ownership within the United States. The second used a subsample of those who identified as Black (N = 1086) from a representative sample from New Jersey, Minnesota, and Mississippi. Variables related to safety and threat concerns were included in the second sample.
Results
In both samples, multiple demographic variables, such as being a woman and having higher education, predicted firearm ownership. In the second sample, experiences of everyday discrimination and crime experiences were associated with firearm ownership. Additionally, Black firearm owners reported significantly more suicidal ideation than Black nonfirearm owners.
Conclusion
The findings demonstrate the unique characteristics and experiences of Black firearm owners and show that firearm ownership is associated with increased suicide risk factors for Black adults. Findings should be used to advocate for the creation of more culturally relevant suicide prevention and firearm means safety strategies.
A better understanding of the lawful use of guns and the symbolic meaning of guns to gun owners is essential to bridge the divide in public opinion regarding policies to reduce gun violence in the ...U.S.
A national, prerecruited Internet panel of U.S. adults in 2019 was used to survey gun owners (n=2,086) to ascertain their gun-related attitudes and practices. Data were analyzed in 2020.
The primary reason given for owning a gun was defense (59.4%), followed by recreation (26.8%). A minority of the gun owners in the sample (22.9%) reported taking part in any gun-related activity more than rarely. The proportion of respondents who agreed that guns are an important part of their identity was just 10.0%. The majority of the gun owners viewed gun control advocates as wanting to take away all guns (58.5%). Nearly 70% of gun owners reported that a reason for their reluctance to engage in gun violence prevention was that they feel alienated because they perceive gun control advocates as blaming them for the gun violence problem, not understanding gun ownership, and not understanding much about guns.
For most of the gun owners, gun ownership plays a practical role as a method of self-protection and has a symbolic association with freedom. Public health practitioners must develop novel communication strategies that avoid alienating gun owners by creating a perception that the ultimate aim is to take their guns away.
Objectives
Although firearms are the leading suicide means among female veterans, firearm research in this population remains limited. This study explored female veterans' firearm‐related experiences ...and perspectives.
Method
Sixteen cisgender female veterans (ages 27‐69) participated in qualitative interviews.
Results
Participants gained initial firearm knowledge and exposure in childhood and adolescence through older male family members. Military service led to broader exposure to firearms, which were perceived as important for survival and protection in a male‐dominated environment, predominantly due to the risk for sexual violence. Following military service, the desire for self‐protection motivated firearm ownership and storage practices. Participants perceived trust as essential to firearm discussions, preferring for family members to initiate such conversations.
Conclusions
This study provides insight into the context in which female veterans' firearm‐related beliefs and practices develop. Interpersonal factors and various lifespan experiences appear to play a vital role in female veterans' firearm access, ownership, and storage practices.
This study examines the relationship between the concentration of legal firearm dealers and firearm homicide in 27 states. Using data collected from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and ...Explosives (ATF) and the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), multilevel negative binomial models are used to estimate homicides perpetrated with a firearm. We assess separate models for White and Black victims across three homicide types. The results demonstrate that a greater concentration of firearm dealers in surrounding counties increases the risk for firearm homicide with White victims. However, a greater concentration of firearm dealers within counties increases the risk for intimate partner homicide when the victim is Black. Stronger gun laws decrease the risk of total and gang/drug-related gun homicide with White victims, and decrease intimate partner homicides across racial groups. The results suggest the need for policy and intervention strategies that account for diverse community and gun market dynamics.
Recent increases in firearm violence in U.S. cities are well-documented, however dynamic changes in the people, places and intensity of this public health threat during the COVID-19 pandemic are ...relatively unexplored. This descriptive epidemiologic study spanning from January 1, 2015 - March 31, 2021 utilizes the Philadelphia Police Department's registry of shooting victims, a database which includes all individuals shot and/or killed due to interpersonal firearm violence in the city of Philadelphia. We compared victim and event characteristics prior to the pandemic with those following implementation of pandemic containment measures. In this study, containment began on March 16, 2020, when non-essential businesses were ordered to close in Philadelphia. There were 331 (SE = 13.9) individuals shot/quarter pre-containment vs. 545 (SE = 66.4) individuals shot/quarter post-containment (p = 0.031). Post-containment, the proportion of women shot increased by 39% (95% CI: 1.21, 1.59), and the proportion of children shot increased by 17% (95% CI: 1.00, 1.35). Black women and children were more likely to be shot post-containment (RR 1.11, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.20 and RR 1.08, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.14, respectively). The proportion of mass shootings (≥4 individuals shot within 100 m within 1 h) increased by 53% post-containment (95% CI: 1.25, 1.88). Geographic analysis revealed relative increases in all shootings and mass shootings in specific city locations post-containment. The observed changes in firearm injury epidemiology following COVID-19 containment in Philadelphia demonstrate an intensification in firearm violence, which is increasingly impacting people who are likely made more vulnerable by existing social and structural disadvantage. These findings support existing knowledge about structural causes of interpersonal firearm violence and suggest structural solutions are required to address this public health threat.
•Following enactment of COVID-19 containment policies in Philadelphia:•Women and children, especially Black women and children, were more likely to be shot.•A greater proportion of firearm-injured individuals were shot in mass shootings.•Shootings were concentrated in new geographic “hot spots”.•Solutions to interpersonal firearm violence should address structural disadvantage.
“There are 400 million guns in a country of 330 million”, says Shannon Watts, the dynamic founder of Moms Demand Action, a grass-roots network in the USA that advocates for public safety measures to ...prevent gun violence. Since 2020, guns are now the leading cause of death among children aged 1–19 years in America”, she explains. “Shannon is a remarkable embodiment of focus, vision, and courage around firearm safety”, says Mark Shapiro, a hospitalist at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, CA, who now talks about “the public health crisis of firearms” including on medical grand rounds and his popular podcast Explore the Space. The group also helped score a victory for gun safety in 2022, when the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed in Congress; it includes enhanced background checks for gun buyers as well as funding for community violence prevention and to improve school safety.
Child Access Prevention Negligent Storage (CAP-NS) laws seek to reduce pediatric firearm injury by imposing sanctions on gun owners if children gain access to unlocked guns. Whether these laws affect ...the storage behavior they aim to encourage is not known because historical panel data on firearm storage do not exist. As a result, assessing how much, if at all, firearm storage changed because of CAP-NS laws requires an indirect approach.
Data for this study came from a web-based survey conducted by the research firm Ipsos from July 30, 2019 to August 11, 2019. Respondents were adult gun owners drawn from an online sampling frame comprising approximately 55,000 U.S. adults recruited using address-based sampling methods to be representative of the U.S. population. The primary outcome was the proportion of gun owners in CAP-NS versus non-CAP-NS states who had ≥1 unlocked firearm. Estimates are presented by CAP-NS status, for gun owners overall and for those who live with children, before and after adjusting for potential confounders. Data were analyzed in 2021.
In adjusted analyses, gun owners in CAP-NS states were no more likely to lock firearms than were those in states without these laws. In addition, most gun owners reported not knowing whether they lived in a state with a CAP-NS law.
CAP-NS laws have at best modest effects on firearm storage. If the storage effect is as small as this study indicates, the mortality benefits previously attributed to CAP-NS laws are overstated. As such, developing interventions that effectively reduce firearm mortality by reducing access to firearms remains an urgent clinical and public policy priority.
Background: After a 1996 firearm massacre in Tasmania in which 35 people died, Australian governments united to remove semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns and rifles from civilian possession, as ...a key component of gun law reforms. Objective: To determine whether Australia’s 1996 major gun law reforms were associated with changes in rates of mass firearm homicides, total firearm deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides, and whether there were any apparent method substitution effects for total homicides and suicides. Design: Observational study using official statistics. Negative binomial regression analysis of changes in firearm death rates and comparison of trends in pre–post gun law reform firearm-related mass killings. Setting: Australia, 1979–2003. Main outcome measures: Changes in trends of total firearm death rates, mass fatal shooting incidents, rates of firearm homicide, suicide and unintentional firearm deaths, and of total homicides and suicides per 100 000 population. Results: In the 18 years before the gun law reforms, there were 13 mass shootings in Australia, and none in the 10.5 years afterwards. Declines in firearm-related deaths before the law reforms accelerated after the reforms for total firearm deaths (p = 0.04), firearm suicides (p = 0.007) and firearm homicides (p = 0.15), but not for the smallest category of unintentional firearm deaths, which increased. No evidence of substitution effect for suicides or homicides was observed. The rates per 100 000 of total firearm deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides all at least doubled their existing rates of decline after the revised gun laws. Conclusions: Australia’s 1996 gun law reforms were followed by more than a decade free of fatal mass shootings, and accelerated declines in firearm deaths, particularly suicides. Total homicide rates followed the same pattern. Removing large numbers of rapid-firing firearms from civilians may be an effective way of reducing mass shootings, firearm homicides and firearm suicides.
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