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We explore patterns and correlates of gun ownership in the United States, with a special focus on differentiating those who will never own a gun from those who are open to ownership in the future. We do this by reporting on results from two national surveys. First, we use the Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel, waves 25 and 26 (overall n=3,930) collected in early 2017, and compare three categories --current gun owners ("owners"), non-owners ("nevers"), and non-owners who are willing to consider acquiring firearms in the future ("maybes"). We then extend this work by incorporating analysis from the Guns in American Life Survey (GALS, n=3,108 with an oversample of gun owners), collected in September of 2018. The ownership categories in GALS include: current owners, likely owners, maybe owners, and never owners. We approach our research question with a generational lens and investigated the role of several classes of factors in shaping their experiences and attitudes. We hypothesize that, compared to the never owners, "maybes" are more socialized into gun culture, more fearful, do not believe gun owners are stigmatized, are farther along with enacting self-protection measures (preparedness), more likely to justify occasional violence, and less trusting of the police. Descriptive findings suggest that "maybes" are similar to owners in some ways (e.g., tending to be white, Republican, and southern) but also more like non-owners in other ways (e.g., college educated). Preliminary regression results using PEW data indicate that in addition to tending to be Millennials, the maybes are people who have had direct contact with guns already, do not think gun violence is a problem, and see less negative stigma in their communities against guns. Importantly, they are not more fearful or less trusting than those who will never own a gun. Preliminary regression results using GALS data indicate that those who might buy a gun in the future have already taken steps to protect themselves, believe that violence is sometimes necessary, and have less trust in the police. Our findings contribute to contemporary understanding of possible future gun owners and are discussed using a cultural toolkit framework. Neoliberal and individualized unsettled culture translates into strategies of action with defensive postures around gun ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging young adult's gun violence and multiple school shootings ignites the debate about which risk factors, namely gun ownership and personality traits, had a determinant impact on youth serious violence. Cross-sectional studies demonstrated owning guns had positive but mixed influences on state-level adolescence homicide rates, whereas juvenile delinquency was significantly associated with difficult temperaments (i.e., high negative emotionality, high impulsivity, low sociability, and high activity level). No longitudinal and individual-level studies have directly examined this issue. The current study examined the impact of gun ownership, personal temperaments, previous psychological and behavioral problems, as well as their interactions, on violent behaviors using PHDCN data. Results from zero-inflated negative binomial regression before and after multiple imputation, coupled with propensity score matching analysis for robustness check, revealed that gun ownership was the one of the largest predictors of youth violence, in addition to previous externalizing problems, previous violent behaviors, and intelligence. Present findings from significant interactions argue that young adults' violence is not simply dependent on either individual characteristics or guns, but instead of "who is in what circumstances." Therefore, bear in mind of the limitations, future directions and suggestions for reforming gun policy, developing juvenile delinquency prevention, and intervention strategies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although more than 20,000 Americans are dying of gun annually, the U.S. still remains the country where one can own firearms at home most freely. What kinds of people support the private ownership of firearms? How has the trend changed? To answer these questions, this research conducted a regression and a cohort analyses with a longitudinal (repeated cross-sectional design) data set (1981-1998) available from the DDB-Needham Life Style Studies. The regression analysis found that "brave" people with overconfidence in their ability in fist fight tend to support the cause of private ownership of firearms. However, although one's confidence in fist fight is significantly and positively related with support for private ownership of firearms at the individual level, the cohort analysis showed that trends in those two variables do not necessarily move in the same direction at the ecological (cohort) level. Further, the regression analysis also found that the property crime rate in each survey year was significantly and negatively associated with the respondent's support for private ownership of firearms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years arose a controversy over whether women?s gun ownership rate has increased over time. While media reports claimed a rising trend in women?s gun ownership, countable existing scholarly studies found stable rates over time. Joining this debate, our paper investigates this issue using the 1973-2002 General Social Survey data. Our bivariate analysis reveals a declining trend in female gun ownership, especially in recent years. The logistic regression results indicate that holding relevant variables constant, the probability of female gun ownership decreases over time. Comparisons are also made with men. Similar results for male gun ownership are obtained. Possible explanations and implications of findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of gun ownership have all but ignored the use of life course approaches in the examination of this issue. While attention has been given to experiences with firearms during childhood and adolescence, later stages of the lifecycle are nonexistent. Even less attention has been devoted to the study of differences between generational cohorts and gun ownership. This paper utilizes membership in a generational cohort to examine gun ownership in U.S. adults. The paper uses the 1973-2004 General Social Survey data to examine the issue. The analysis was conducted at both the household and personal level of gun ownership. The findings of the logistic regression analysis indicate that holding relevant factors constant show some support for generational effects associated with gun ownership. Further, social, demographic, and political factors associated with gun ownership and their subsequent indications of the conservative values associated with gun ownership across generations are identified and discussed. Suggestions for future research involving gun ownership and the life course are also presented. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on firearm behaviors has primarily focused on the who, what, why and how of gun ownership. Social scientists have long been interested in who gun owners are, what types of guns are owned, why individuals own guns and how these privately owned firearms are handled. Consistency in the demographic characteristics of gun owners has been continually noted in this literature and suggests a cultural transmission of values surrounding firearms. At the heart of the current research is a question about the socialization of gun owners. Do cultural and socialization experiences impact whether or not individuals own guns? Does this remain consistent if we examine different types of owners, such handgun owners versus long gun owners or different reasons for owning, such as protection and sport. Gun ownership is analyzed using data from the National Study of Private Ownership of Firearms (NSPOF) gathered by the Police Foundation and funded by the United States Department of Justice in November and December of 1994 (Cook and Ludwig, 1996). Models have been developed to identify the nature of gun ownership generally, as well as, differentiate between ownership for protection and sport. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing interest in the issue of womens gun ownership but research in the area has received little specific attention (Sheley et al., 1994; Smith and Smith, 1995; Bugg and Yang, 2004). One important limitation of these existing studies is found in the fact that they have relied almost exclusively on the General Social Survey (GSS). Two common explanations for womens gun ownership exist: 1) ownership due to fear of crime and 2) the ownership due to a larger gun use lifestyle. The purpose of this study is to explore the two explanations via a qualitative analysis of the images of womens gun ownership. Our study examines this topic through the use of visual images from Women & Guns magazine. Using this visual data allows for examination of a publication for women gun owners published by women gun owners and its representation of female gun ownership to readers. Findings suggest the presence of images associated with both explanations for womens gun ownership. Frequency counts of the two image types suggest that the majority of the images are depictions of lifestyle gun usage. We conclude that women's gun ownership is presented in lifestyle terms to both current and potential readers. Further research must be conducted into this topic with an emphasis on women's motivations for gun ownership. Emphasis should be given to interviewing women who have purchased a firearm for personal use as opposed to previous studies that have focused on a woman's access to a firearm in the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines predictors of school weapon carrying among a nationally representative sample of students. While national estimates of the prevalence of school weapon carrying have declined over the last decade, the proportion of students reporting that they were threatened or injured with a weapon at school has slowly increased in recent years. This suggests that a declining population of student weapon carriers is using weapons with greater frequency while at school. This research examines student weapon carrying with data gathered from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. More specifically, this research contributes to the existing literature by concurrently testing the effects of student, school, and community measures on student weapon carrying. In general, few studies have attempted to account for both school and community measures in examining student-level outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a longitudinal panel study, are used to investigate the trends in gun carrying and gun ownership among boys from adolescence to early adulthood. This paper assesses the impact of early and late adolescent risky behaviors, such as delinquency, gang membership, and illegal gun carrying on the likelihood of carrying and owning guns and on continued involvement in crime as young adults. Adult predictors including peer delinquency and dynamic life events, and the relationships between early behaviors and reasons for adult gun ownership will also be examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]