Firearm Retailers’ Willingness to Participate in an Illegal Gun Purchase
Firearm-related violence is a significant public health and public safety problem for cities in the USA, and licensed firearm retailers are an important source of the guns used in that violence. Using a scripted telephone interview, we screened a sample of licensed retailers in California to assess...
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Format: | Electronic Book |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2010
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In: | Year: 2010 |
Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Summary: | Firearm-related violence is a significant public health and public safety problem for cities in the USA, and licensed firearm retailers are an important source of the guns used in that violence. Using a scripted telephone interview, we screened a sample of licensed retailers in California to assess their willingness to participate in the surrogate or “straw” purchase of a handgun; such purchases are illegal under federal law. Of 149 retailers who provided a response, 30 (20.1%) agreed to participate. In multivariate analysis, pawnbrokers were more likely to agree than were gun dealers (odds ratio 6.58, 95% confidence interval 1.99–21.71). Sales of handguns that were later subjected to ownership tracing (a proxy measure for a gun’s use in crime) were not more frequent among retailers who agreed to participate than among others, and other findings were unexpected as well |
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DOI: | 10.1007/s11524-010-9489-6 |