Citation

Williams AM, Tam SH, Adjei Boakye E. JAMA Oncol. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.7823

PMID

36862388

Abstract

Firearm ownership in the US is often in the news--both nationally and internationally. Indeed, the US has a higher prevalence of civilian-owned firearms than any other country.1 Based on 2021 Pew Research Center data, 40% of US adults reported living in households with firearms, and 30% reported personally owning a firearm. Approximately 39% of male adults and 22% of female adults in the US reported owning a gun.1 Firearm ownership also varied across race (36% of White adults, 24% of Black adults, 18% of Hispanic adults, 10% of Asian adults), age (18% of adults aged 18 to 29 years and 32-33% of those aged more than 30 years), and geography (35% of adults in the South, 31% of adults in the Midwest, 28% of adults in the West, 20% of adults in the Northeast; 41% of adults in rural areas, 29% of adults in suburban areas, 20% of adults in urban areas).1 The rationale for firearm ownership included personal protection (63%), hunting (40%), recreation (11%), that it was a family heirloom (6%), and that it was occupation-related (5%).1 The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a surge in new firearm owners across the US, increasing to 3.8 million new gun owners in 2020 compared with 2.4 million in the same period in 2019. Overall, firearm purchases increased as well with 16.6 million US adults purchasing a firearm in 2020 compared with 13.8 million in 2019.2 Based on our data from 2016 to 2020 asking 965 consecutive patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer (HNC) from Michigan and northwestern Ohio about firearms in the home as part of a pretreatment psycho-oncology evaluation, 363 (38%) endorsed having a firearm in the home. Of those reporting firearms in the home, the mean (SD) age was 63 years (12.1; range, 19-94), 272 (75%) were male, and 295 (81%) were White...

Language: en