摘要：Objectives. To quantify the proportion of current US gun owners who are new to owning firearms and compare new versus long-standing gun owners with respect to their firearms and firearm-related behaviors. Methods. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative probability-based online survey conducted in 2015 in the United States. We defined new gun owners as current firearm owners who acquired all of their firearms within the past 5 years, but who lived in a home without a gun at some time over the past 5 years. We defined long-standing firearm owners as all other current gun owners. Results. New gun owners represented 10% of all current US adult gun owners. In addition to being younger than long-standing gun owners, new gun owners were more likely to be liberal, own fewer guns, own handguns, own guns only for protection, and store guns in a safe manner. Conclusions. Gun ownership is dynamic, with approximately 1 million Americans becoming new gun owners each year. Public Health Implications. Clinical guidelines should be updated to explicitly endorse re-evaluating household firearm status at regular intervals. Compared with gun owners in the 1990s, gun owners today own more guns, especially handguns, and are more likely to own guns for protection (rather than hunting). 1,2 The extent to which this shift is attributable to new owners being different from long-standing gun owners, or to changes among long-standing owners the longer they own firearms, or both, is not known. In fact, no previous survey research has quantified the proportion of current gun owners who are new to owning firearms; described in what ways, if any, Americans who recently became gun owners differ from long-standing gun owners; or examined, with respect to the stock and flow of firearms, how the US civilian gun stock is distributed across new, compared with long-standing, gun owners. For example, previous research 1–4 has generally found that firearms are most likely to be owned by White men who live in rural areas, are middle-aged or older, have a middle to higher income, grew up with guns in the home, and live in the Southern or Midwestern regions of the country. In addition, this research has found that a majority of gun owners store firearms unlocked, own both handguns and long guns, and own 3 or more guns. No study to date has, however, examined the extent to which these characterizations of US firearm owners apply equally to those who have owned firearms for a long period of time versus those who are new to gun ownership. We addressed these knowledge gaps by estimating, for the first time, the proportion of current gun owners who at some point within the past 5 years did not live in a home with a gun but have since acquired firearms (new firearm owners), and compared them and their firearms with all other firearm owners (long-standing firearm owners) and their firearms. Quantifying the dynamic nature of firearm ownership and describing who new gun owners are and how they store their household guns may help clinicians and public policymakers focus attention on groups of Americans that might otherwise be overlooked under the assumption that becoming a gun owner is a rare event, or if new gun owners are assumed to look a lot like long-standing gun owners.
