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More restrictive gun laws may reduce prevalence of youth gun carrying

High school students living in states with more restrictive gun laws are less likely to carry a gun, according to recently published data in JAMA Pediatrics.

“We found an inverse association between gun policies and both state-level prevalence and individual-level odds of youth gun carrying,” the researchers wrote.

Researchers analyzed data from the 2007, 2009 and 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey to assess the correlation between state gun law environment and gun carrying among high school students.

The researchers rated state gun laws from 0 to 100 points, with higher scores representing more restrictive laws, to characterize gun law environment.

Results demonstrated that significant disparities in gun carrying, among both adults and youths, existed across the country.

Across all 50 states, Massachusetts had the lowest prevalence of gun ownership among adults at 20%, while 70.9% of adults in Mississippi reportedly own a gun, according to study results.

Overall, 38 states had available data on youth gun carrying. Among high school student in grades nine through 12, the average prevalence of gun carrying was 6.7%; New Jersey had the lowest prevalence at 1.4% and Wyoming had the highest at 11%.

A 10-point increase in state gun law score was associated with a 9% decrease in likelihood of youth gun carrying (AOR = 0.91; 95% CI, 0.86-0.96), according to the study.

The researchers also found an association between adult gun ownership and youth gun carrying, with states with higher levels of adult ownership reporting higher levels of youth carrying.

“Gun violence poses a substantial public health threat to adolescents in the United States. Existing evidence points to the need for policies to reduce gun carrying among youth. We find that the strength of gun policies including both adult-focused and youth-focused policies is inversely associated with youth gun carrying. These findings are relevant to gun policy debates about the critical importance of comprehensive state-level gun law environment to prevent youth gun carrying,” the researchers concluded. – by Casey Hower

Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.