75. Unsupervised firearm handling by adolescents

We analyzed data from a telephone survey of over 5,800 California adolescents conducted in 2000-01.

Major findings:  One-third of adolescents reported handling a firearm, 5% without adult supervision or knowledge.  Smoking, drinking and parents not knowing the child’s whereabouts in the afternoon were associated with unsupervised gun handling.  These events usually occur away from home, with friends.  Half involve shooting the gun.

Publication: Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David. “Unsupervised Firearm Handling by California Adolescents.” Injury Prevention. 2004; 10:163-68.

76. Social capital and gun prevalence.
Working with experts on income inequality, social capital, and mortality, we analyzed the relationship between firearm availability and measures of social trust and civic engagement across US states.
Major findings:  States with more guns have lower levels of both mutual trust and civic engagement, after accounting for urbanization, poverty and median household income.
Publication:  Hemenway, David; Kennedy, Bruce; Kawachi, Ichiro; Putnam, Robert D.  "Firearm Prevalence and Social Capital." Annals of Epidemiology.  2001; 11:484-490.

77. Safer Guns
We made the case that more research needs to be done to make firearms safer, more effective, and less lethal.
Publication: Hemenway, David; Weil, Douglas S. “Phasers on Stun: the Case for Less Lethal Weapons.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 1990; 9:94-98.
Publication: Hemenway, David; Weil, Douglas S.. “Less Lethal Weapons.” Op-Ed, Washington Post, May 14, 1990

78. Gun injuries in Canada
Using data for all firearm-injured patients in the Canadian National Trauma Registry, we evaluated demographic and causal factors of injury.
Major findings:  About 40% of the shooting victims died in-hospital, with 83% of fatalities occurring on the first day.  ISS score, first systolic blood pressure, first Glasgow Coma Scale score, male gender and self-inflicted injury were all predictors of in-hospital death.
Publication: Finley, Christian J; Hemenway, David; Clifton, Joanne; Brown D Ross; Simons, Richard K; Hameed Morad.  “The Demographics of Significant Firearm Injury in Canadian Trauma Centres and the Associated Predictors of In-hospital Mortality.”  Canadian Journal of Surgery. 2008; 51:197-203.

79. Guns and suicide in Mexico
We assessed the relationship between handgun prevalence and firearm suicide across the 32 Mexican states for 2005.
Major findings: States with more handguns had significantly higher rates of firearm suicide; there was no relationship between handgun prevalence and non-firearm suicide.
Publication:  Miller, Matthew, and Borges, Guilherme.  “Firearms and Suicide in Mexico.” Journal JovenES. in press.