Generations and Differences in Gun Ownership.

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 ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]