TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Armed and prohibited: characteristics of unlawful owners of legally purchased firearms
JO  - Injury prevention
A1  - Pear, Veronica A.
A1  - McCort, Christopher D.
A1  - Li, Yueju
A1  - Beckett, Laurel
A1  - Tancredi, Daniel
A1  - Studdert, David M.
A1  - Kass, Philip H.
A1  - Pierce, Glenn L.
A1  - Braga, Anthony Allan
A1  - Wright, Mona A.
A1  - Laqueur, Hannah S.
A1  - Kravitz-Wirtz, Nicole
A1  - Wintemute, Garen J.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: A substantial proportion of individuals who lawfully purchase firearms later become unlawful owners ('prohibited firearm owners'), usually following events associated with an increased risk for future violence. This high-risk population has not previously been described. We aimed to characterise all individuals in California's Armed and Prohibited Persons System (APPS), a statewide programme for recovering firearms from individuals who legally purchased them and later became prohibited from ownership. <br><br>METHODS: We used univariate and bivariate statistics to describe and compare prohibited firearm owners in APPS with a random sample of non-prohibited firearm owners in relation to age, sex, race/ethnicity and type of firearms owned as of 1 February 2015. We also characterised the geographical distribution of prohibited firearm owners and described their prohibitions. <br><br>RESULTS: Of the 18 976 prohibited firearm owners, most were men (93%), half were white (53%) and the mean age was 47 years. Prohibited firearm owners were more likely to be male and to be black or Hispanic people than non-prohibited owners. Both prohibited and non-prohibited firearm owners had an average of 2.6 firearms, mostly handguns. Nearly half (48%) of prohibited firearm owners had a felony conviction. Extrapolating from our findings, we estimated that there are approximately 100 000 persons in the USA who unlawfully maintained ownership of their firearms following a felony conviction. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Retention of firearms among persons who become lawfully prohibited from possessing them is common in California. Given the nationwide dearth of a programme to recover such weapons, this is likely true in other states as well.<br><br>© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1353-8047
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2019-043479
ID  - ref1
ER  -