Firearms Are Present in Homes of One in Five California Teens

Newswise — Almost 20 percent of California adolescents participating in a recent survey said they live in a household with at least one firearm, but only 3 percent say they have their own gun.

Those most likely to have firearms in their homes are whites, boys, adolescents between 14 and 17 years old, U.S. citizens and teens living in higher-income or rural households

Teens living in lower-income homes, however, are more likely than adolescents in higher-income homes to have their own handgun, say Susan Sorenson, Ph.D., and Katherine Vittes, M.P.H., of the University of California, Los Angeles. Their findings are published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The researchers also found that employed adolescents are more likely to have a firearm of their own, regardless of their parents' income level.

"It may be that adolescents with jobs have the resources to obtain their own guns; they may have the money with which to purchase a gun and, by fact of their employment, a larger social network that includes persons who may be willing to supply a firearm," Sorenson says.

Nearly one-fifth of all the teens surveyed said they knew someone their age who has a handgun. Although black and Latino teens were less likely to report having a gun in their homes, they were more likely to say that they knew someone their age with a handgun.

Black and Latino adolescents may wrongfully feel they are in the minority of their peers when it comes to having guns, Sorenson and Vittes suggest.

"If these findings are confirmed by subsequent research, interventions designed to change perceptions and expectations among black and Latino adolescents about handguns among their peers could be a focus of prevention," Sorenson says.

The study included 5,801 California adolescents surveyed between November 2000 and October 2001. The interviews were conducted in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Khmer to reach the widest possible sample of teens.

Long guns like rifles were the most common gun in the households of those surveyed. About 10 percent of teens said they live in a house with a handgun and less than 1 percent said they personally own a handgun.

In 2000, 3,913 youths ages 10 to 19 died from intentional gunshot wounds, making that cause of death for this age group second only to unintentional injuries.

The study was supported by the Joyce Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Health Behavior News Service: (202) 387-2829 or http://www.hbns.org.

American Journal of Public Health: (202) 777-2511 or http://www.ajph.org.