Guns in young hands: a survey of urban teenagers' attitudes and behaviors related to handgun violence.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the nature and causes of gun violence among urban young people.


METHODS
We conducted a confidential survey of 1,219 7th and 10th graders in Boston and Milwaukee, regarding their attitudes and behaviors toward violence and handguns.


RESULTS
Twenty-nine percent have had a member of their immediate family shot, 42% could get a gun if they wanted, 28% have handled a gun without adult knowledge or supervision, 17% have carried a concealed gun, and 3% reported bringing a gun to school in the past 30 days. Nine percent admitted smoking cigarettes in the past week, 11% admitted smoking marijuana. Twenty-five percent were attacked or threatened within the past year. Reasons for gun carrying were mostly related to perceived safety/threats/revenge (73%), followed by casual handling (17%), hunting (4%), being cool (3%), target practice (2%), and gangs (1%). The following factors were significantly correlated with gun handling by chi 2 analysis, at p < 0.001 (percentage of respondents admitting unsupervised gun handling shown in parentheses): male (39%) versus female (19%); 10th graders (35%) versus 7th graders (24%) seat-belt nonusers (35%) versus users (20%); students who state they have poor grades (39%) versus good grades (26%); cigarette smokers (61%) versus nonsmokers (25%); have a gun in the home (46%) versus no gun in the home (23%). Also strongly correlated in multivariate analysis were violence exposure, having been arrested, and beliefs that "gun carrying is a good idea," or that "only cowards back down from a fight."


CONCLUSIONS
Handgun availability and use are high among urban youth; gun carrying is mostly related to safety concerns and easy access, rather than to hunting or sport. This may be a cause of high handgun injury rates in this group. Gun injury prevention programs must address youth safety concerns along with handgun availability.
Department of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee 53226, USA.
J M
JM
Bergstein
D
D
Hemenway
B
B
Kennedy
S
S
Quaday
R
R
Ander
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D001900:Boston; D003625:Data Collection; D003710:Demography; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D002189:Marijuana Abuse / Q000453:epidemiology; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012307:Risk Factors; D012622:Seat Belts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D012945:Social Values; D014505:Urban Population; D014754:Violence; D014922:Wisconsin