Community Firearms, Community Fear

Author: Miller, M / Azrael, D./ / Hemenway, D.
Publication: Epidemiology
Topics: Ethnicity Gender Legislation and Policy Ownership Social Science.
Keywords: Fear Firearms Gender PSYCHOLOGY Race guns race, risk, urban environment
Bibliographic information +

Using data generated from a nationally representative random digit-dial telephone survey, the authors examine how perceptions of safety are influenced as more people in a community acquire firearms. 51% of respondents reported that they would feel less safe if more people in their community were to own guns and 14% reported that they would feel more safe. Women and minorities were more likely than men and Whites to feel less safe as others acquire guns. According to the authors, the findings suggest that Americans are not insensitive to the psychological effects of guns in their community, and that, by a margin or more than 3 to 1, more guns make others in the community feel less safe rather than safer.