Firearm ownership and acquisition in California: findings from the 2018 California Safety and Well-being Survey

Abstract

ObjectiveTo describe the prevalence of and factors associated with firearm ownership; the types, subtypes and quantity of firearms owned; and when, where and why firearms were acquired in California.MethodsA cross-sectional analysis of a state-representative, probability-based, internet survey of California adults was conducted in September–October 2018 (n=2558; completion rate 49%). Household firearm ownership was ascertained for all respondents; personal firearm ownership was ascertained only among respondents who reported living in a home with firearms; and information on the types and quantity of firearms owned and details about recently acquired firearms came from firearm owners only.FindingsRoughly one in four (25%, 95% CI 22% to 28%) California adults live in a home with a firearm, including 4.2 million adults—14% (95% CI 13% to 16%) of the adult population—who personally own a firearm. These owners collectively own an estimated 19.9 million firearms (8.9 million handguns). Approximately half (48%, 95% CI 34% to 61%) of the firearm stock in California is owned by the 10% (95% CI 6% to 14%) of owners who own 10 or more firearms, though more than half (54%, 95% CI 47% to 62%) of owners in the state own only one or two firearms. Most (69%, 95% CI 63% to 75%) owners purchased their last firearm from a firearm retailer, usually a handgun purchased primarily for protection against people.ConclusionThis study provides the most detailed and up-to-date information available on firearm ownership and acquisition in California. Results can inform firearm violence prevention efforts and public health, safety and policy development in California and nationally.

Armed and prohibited: characteristics of unlawful owners of legally purchased firearms

“…Making a few assumptions, we can extrapolate from the proportion of firearm owners in California who are prohibited due to a felony conviction to estimate the number of firearm owners prohibited due to a felony conviction nationwide. There are an estimated 4.2 million firearm owners in California 21. We found 7711 firearm owners with a felony conviction in California shortly after the statewide APPS programme began, which represents 0.18% of all firearm owners in the state.…”

Firearm Ownership Among LGBT Adults in California

“…LGBT owners more often cited protection against people as their primary reason for owning handguns (71.7% [95% CI: 54.7-84.2] vs. 56.7%) and long guns (54.5% [95% CI: 27.1-79.5] vs. 17.6%) compared with the general population of owners statewide (Kravitz-Wirtz et al 2019). Higher percentages of LGBT owners than general population owners also reported holding CCW permits (21.5% [95% CI: 12.1-35.3] vs. 15.2%) and carrying in the past 30 days (28.8% [95% CI: 16.7-44.9] vs. 17.0%).…”

“…This weight also included corrections to align opt-in respondents with those from KP based on standard sociodemographic characteristics, factors known to differentiate opt-in and probability-based samples, and additional sources of nonsampling errors. Further details on survey methodology are provided elsewhere (Kravitz-Wirtz et al 2019;Schleimer et al 2019).…”

Patterns of Firearm Ownership and Opinions on Firearm Policies Among Adults in California

“…Data for this survey study were from the 2018 California Safety and Well-being Survey administered from September 14, 2018, to October 12, 2018. 3 The California Safety and Well-being Survey was approved by the University of California, Davis Institutional Review Board. Respondents received a standard informed consent page online.…”