Criminal charge history, handgun purchasing, and demographic characteristics of legal handgun purchasers in California.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The prevalence and characteristics of handgun purchasers' criminal charge histories have never been described for a large population of firearm owners, but such information is critical to understanding risk factors for subsequent violence in this population. We sought to characterize legal handgun purchasers in California and compare this group to the state population, to quantify the proportion with a criminal charge history at purchase, and to identify modifiable factors associated with of having such a history.

Methods

This cross-sectional study of all 79,927 legal handgun purchasers aged 21-49 years in California in 2001 used log-linear generalized additive models to identify factors associated with having a criminal charge history at purchase. Subjects are fr

SUBMITTER: Pear VA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7869452 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature