The surge in background checks in March 2020 suggested an acceleration in U.S. firearm purchases. This survey-based study estimates the number of and describes characteristics of firearm purchasers over a period spanning time before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Introduction: Child Access Prevention Negligent Storage (CAP-NS) laws seek to reduce pediatric firearm injury by imposing sanctions on gun owners if children gain access to unlocked guns. Whether these laws affect the storage behavior they aim to encourage is not known because historical panel data on firearm storage do not exist. As a result, assessing how much, if at all, firearm storage changed because of CAP-NS laws requires an indirect approach.Methods: Data for this study came from a web-based survey conducted by the research firm Ipsos from July 30, 2019 to August 11, 2019. Respondents were adult gun owners drawn from an online sampling frame comprising approximately 55,000 U.S. adults recruited using address-based sampling methods to be representative of the U.S. population. The primary outcome was the proportion of gun owners in CAP-NS versus non-CAP-NS states who had ≥1 unlocked firearm. Estimates are presented by CAP-NS status, for gun owners overall and for those who live with children, before and after adjusting for potential confounders. Data were analyzed in 2021. Results:In adjusted analyses, gun owners in CAP-NS states were no more likely to lock firearms than were those in states without these laws. In addition, most gun owners reported not knowing whether they lived in a state with a CAP-NS law.Conclusions: CAP-NS laws have at best modest effects on firearm storage. If the storage effect is as small as this study indicates, the mortality benefits previously attributed to CAP-NS laws are overstated. As such, developing interventions that effectively reduce firearm mortality by reducing access to firearms remains an urgent clinical and public policy priority.

Objective Seventy percent of suicides among U.S. veterans are due to firearm injury. Because discussions about firearm access are an important component of evidence‐based suicide prevention programs, we sought to quantify the proportion of U.S. veterans who have discussed firearm safety with a healthcare provider. Methods Data come from a probability‐based, nationally representative online survey of U.S. adults living in households with firearms in 2019 (response 65%). In this study, we include only self‐identified veteran firearm owners. Respondents were asked, “Has a physician or other healthcare practitioner ever spoken to you about firearm safety?” Analyses were stratified by self‐reported use of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) healthcare services. Results Overall, 31.5% (95% CI 27.5–35.8) reported using VHA services and 9.2% (95% CI 6.8–12.3) reported that a clinician had ever spoken with them about firearm safety (14.3% among VHA users, 6.8% among non‐users). Of those who reported a discussion, nearly three quarters reported it was with an outpatient primary care physician or medical specialist. Conclusions A large majority of veteran firearm owners have not had, or do not recall having had, a firearm safety discussion with a clinician, suggesting that additional efforts to facilitate such discussions in the VHA and elsewhere are needed.

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The study aims to describe the 3-year hospital visit histories of suicide decedents in Utah grouped by the suicide method they used. Hospital visit histories from the Utah Office of Health Care Statistics were linked to a census of suicide mortality data from the National Violent Death Reporting System in 2014 and 2015. Overall, 14% of suicide decedents had visited a hospital for deliberate self-harm (DSH) and 49% for a behavioural health issue (BHI), including DSH, suicidal ideation, mental health and substance abuse, prior to their death. Firearms suicide decedents made up over half of all suicides but were the least likely to have a history of DSH or BHI prior to their death (8% and 41%, respectively). Few suicide decedents visited a hospital for DSH prior to their death, although half had visits for BHI. Hospital-based interventions that aim to prevent suicide should not be limited to visits for DSH.

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