Community firearms, community fear

To examine how perceptions of safety are influenced as more people in a com munity acquire firearms, we conducted a nationally representative random di git-dial survey of 2,500 adults and asked whether respondents would feel mo re safe, less safe, or equally safe if more people in their community were to acquire guns. We used multivariable logistic regression to explore corre lates of perceived safety while taking into account various confounders. Fi fty percent of respondents reported that they would feel less safe if more people in their community were to own guns; 14% reported they would feel mo re safe. Women and minorities were more likely than were men and Whites to feel less safe as others acquire guns, with Odds ratios of 1.7 and 1.5, res pectively. Our findings suggest that most Americans are not impervious to t he psychological effects of guns in their community, and that, by a margin or more than 3 to 1, more guns make others in the community feel less safe rather than more safe.