The role of weapons in violent acts - Some results of a Swiss National Cohort Study

The role of guns and other weapons in violent acts has often been a subject of debate. The present study is based on a sample of 21,314 valid intervie ws with 20-year-old Swiss men, representing More than 70% of this cohort. T he results show a much higher frequency of violence among owners ol handgun s and other weapons, but not of rifles. Gun owners also hat-e been in-jured more often and they stiffer more often from psychiatric symptoms, A consid erable proportion of violent gun owners had previous police contacts and co urt appearances, suggesting that policies designed to confiscate guns would be feasible. In a multivariate model. which considered a great number of c onventional criminological variables (such cis delinquent friends) and indi cators of psychopathology ownership of handguns and other weapons (but not rifles) turned out to be a very important factor in explaining violence lea ding to bodily injury.