Unintentional firearm death (UFD) rates are higher among Black children than among White and Hispanic children. Whether disparities in UFD rates among Black as compared to White and Hispanic children vary by o…

Objective

This study aims to characterise the motivations of firearm owners and examine whether firearm ownership motivations and carriage varied by state stand your ground law status.

Methods

Using a nationally representative survey of US adults in 2023, we asked firearm owners (n=2477) about their firearm motivations and behaviours, including reason(s) for ownership.

Results

Of all firearm owners, 78.8% (95% CI 76.0% to 81.0%) owned a firearm for protection, and 58.1% (95% CI 54.3% to 62.0%) carried a firearm outside their home in the last 12 months. Firearm ownership for protection was not significantly associated with stand your ground laws, but firearm carriage was more prevalent in states with stand your ground laws (50.1% (95% CI 47.0% to 53.0%) vs 34.9% (95% CI 25.0% to 46.0%)). Gender (women) and race (minority groups) emerged as key correlates for firearm ownership for protection (vs other ownership motivations). For example, black and Asian women (98.8%) almost exclusively owned firearms for protection.

Conclusions

Protection was the dominant reason for firearm ownership in 2023, motivating 65 million Americans to own firearms and appealing to different strata of the population.

Background

Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death in children and adolescents in the USA. We hypothesised that high rates of risky behaviour in high school students are associated with firearm injury and death in this population.

Methods

We obtained data from the Youth Behaviour Risk Survey of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and combined it with data from the CDC Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System, CDC Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research and American Community Survey, 2001–2020. We examined trends over time using a non-parametric test for trends.

Results

The percentage of high school-aged youth carrying a weapon in the preceding 30 days ranged from 13.2% in 2019 to 18.5% in 2005, without a statistically significant trend over time (p=0.051). Those carrying a weapon to school peaked at 6.5% in 2005 and steadily downtrended to 2.8% in 2019 (p=0.004). Boys consistently reported higher rates of weapon carriage, with white boys reporting higher rates than black boys. Firearm homicides among adolescents 14–18 years showed no significant change, ranging from 4.0 per 100k in 2013 to 8.3 per 100k in 2020. This varied considerably by sex and race, with black boys suffering a rate of nearly 60 per 100 000 in 2020 and white girls rarely exceeding 1/100 000 during the study period.

Conclusion

Self-reported weapon carriage among teens in the USA has steadily downtrended over time. However, shooting injuries and deaths have not. While the former suggests progress, the latter remains concerning.

Level of evidence

Level III; retrospective cohort study.

Publication date: May 2025

Source: Journal of Urban Economics, Volume 147

Author(s): John J. Donohue, Samuel V. Cai, Matthew V. Bondy, Philip J. Cook