DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02750
title: Survey of Gun Owners in the United States, 1996
title: Archival Version

description: This study was undertaken to obtain information on the
 characteristics of gun ownership, gun-carrying practices, and
 weapons-related incidents in the United States -- specifically, gun
 use and other weapons used in self-defense against humans and animals.
 Data were gathered using a national random-digit-dial telephone
 survey. The respondents were comprised of 1,905 randomly-selected
 adults aged 18 and older living in the 50 United States. All
 interviews were completed between May 28 and July 2, 1996. The sample
 was designed to be a representative sample of households, not of
 individuals, so researchers did not interview more than one adult from
 each household. To start the interview, six qualifying questions were
 asked, dealing with (1) gun ownership, (2) gun-carrying practices, (3)
 gun display against the respondent, (4) gun use in self-defense
 against animals, (5) gun use in self-defense against people, and (6)
 other weapons used in self-defense. A "yes" response to a qualifying
 question led to a series of additional questions on the same topic as
 the qualifying question. Part 1, Survey Data, contains the coded data
 obtained during the interviews, and Part 2, Open-Ended-Verbatim
 Responses, consists of the answers to open-ended questions provided by
 the respondents. Information collected for Part 1 covers how many
 firearms were owned by household members, types of firearms owned
 (handguns, revolvers, pistols, fully automatic weapons, and assault
 weapons), whether the respondent personally owned a gun, reasons for
 owning a gun, type of gun carried, whether the gun was ever kept
 loaded, kept concealed, used for personal protection, or used for
 work, and whether the respondent had a permit to carry the
 gun. Additional questions focused on incidents in which a gun was
 displayed in a hostile manner against the respondent, including the
 number of times such an incident took place, the location of the event
 in which the gun was displayed against the respondent, whether the
 police were contacted, whether the individual displaying the gun was
 known to the respondent, whether the incident was a burglary, robbery,
 or other planned assault, and the number of shots fired during the
 incident. Variables concerning gun use by the respondent in
 self-defense against an animal include the number of times the
 respondent used a gun in this manner and whether the respondent was
 hunting at the time of the incident. Other variables in Part 1 deal
 with gun use in self-defense against people, such as the location of
 the event, if the other individual knew the respondent had a gun, the
 type of gun used, any injuries to the respondent or to the individual
 that required medical attention or hospitalization, whether the
 incident was reported to the police, whether there were any arrests,
 whether other weapons were used in self-defense, the type of other
 weapon used, location of the incident in which the other weapon was
 used, and whether the respondent was working as a police officer or
 security guard or was in the military at the time of the
 event. Demographic variables in Part 1 include the gender, race, age,
 household income, and type of community (city, suburb, or rural) in
 which the respondent lived. Open-ended questions asked during the
 interview comprise the variables in Part 2. Responses include
 descriptions of where the respondent was when he or she displayed a
 gun (in self-defense or otherwise), specific reasons why the
 respondent displayed a gun, how the other individual reacted when the
 respondent displayed the gun, how the individual knew the respondent
 had a gun, whether the police were contacted for specific self-defense
events, and if not, why not.
description: Data regarding the incidence and characteristics
 of weapons-related events can be valuable in assessing the costs and
 benefits of private gun ownership. The majority of previous research
 had focused primarily on gun ownership. Very few studies covered a
 national population, distinguished civilian use from military or
 police use, or distinguished gun use against humans from that against
 animals. This study sought to report on the characteristics of gun
 ownership, gun-carrying practices, and weapons-related incidents --
 specifically, gun use and other weapons used in self-defense against
 humans and animals. In addition, the study also focused on how the
respondents described the weapons-related events.
description: Data for Parts 1 and 2 were gathered using a
 national random-digit-dial telephone survey. The sample was comprised
 of randomly-selected adults aged 18 and older living in
 randomly-selected households in the 50 United States. First, draft
 versions of the questionnaire were pilot-tested on an unspecified
 group to help ensure that the final questionnaire would be
 comprehensive and free of any contextual bias. The responses from the
 pilot tests were analyzed, and the final questionnaire incorporated
 adjustments indicated by the pilot tests. The pilot test interviews
 were not included in the final survey sample. To start the interview,
 six qualifying questions were asked, dealing with (1) gun ownership,
 (2) gun-carrying practices, (3) gun display against the respondent,
 (4) gun use in self-defense against animals, (5) gun use in
 self-defense against people, and (6) other weapons used in
 self-defense. A "yes" response to a qualifying question led to a
 series of additional questions on the same topic as the qualifying
 question. The interviews, lasting between 5 and 20 minutes, were
 completed between May 28 and July 2, 1996. No more than one adult from
 each household was interviewed. The sample was designed to be a
 representative sample of households, not of individuals. Rather than
 interview the adult who answered the phone or who happened to be home
 at the time of the call, the study was designed to select a household
 adult chosen at random. In practice, this meant researchers
 alternately asked to speak with a man or with a woman living in the
 household. If there was no person of the requested gender living in
 the household, the initial respondent was interviewed. Once a
 telephone number had been randomly selected for inclusion in the
 survey sample, as many as ten repeat phone calls were made until a
 final disposition was assigned. Respondents were guaranteed anonymity,
 and no identifying information was collected. As with many telephone
 surveys, the data may be subject to various response-related biases,
 including telescoping and self-presentation bias. Coupled with the
 rarity of some of the reported events (e.g., self-defense gun use),
 the principal investigators note that population-based estimates
generated from these data should be viewed cautiously.
description: Information collected for Part 1 covers how many
 firearms were owned by household members, types of firearms owned
 (handguns, revolvers, pistols, fully automatic weapons, and assault
 weapons), whether the respondent personally owned a gun, reasons for
 owning a gun, type of gun carried, whether the gun was ever kept
 loaded, kept concealed, used for personal protection, or used for
 work, and whether the respondent had a permit to carry the
 gun. Additional questions focused on incidents in which a gun was
 displayed in a hostile manner against the respondent, including the
 number of times such an incident took place, the location of the event
 in which the gun was displayed against the respondent, whether the
 police were contacted, whether the individual displaying the gun was
 known to the respondent, whether the incident was a burglary, robbery,
 or other planned assault, and the number of shots fired during the
 incident. Variables concerning gun use by the respondent in
 self-defense against an animal include the number of times the
 respondent used a gun in this manner and whether the respondent was
 hunting at the time of the incident. Other variables in Part 1 deal
 with gun use in self-defense against people, such as the location of
 the event, if the other individual knew the respondent had a gun, the
 type of gun used, any injuries to the respondent or to the individual
 that required medical attention or hospitalization, whether the
 incident was reported to the police, whether there were any arrests,
 whether other weapons were used in self-defense, the type of other
 weapon used, location of the incident in which the other weapon was
 used, and whether the respondent was working as a police officer or
 security guard or was in the military at the time of the
 event. Demographic variables in Part 1 include the gender, race, age,
 household income, and type of community (city, suburb, or rural) in
 which the respondent lived. Open-ended questions asked during the
 interview comprise the variables in Part 2. Responses include
 descriptions of where the respondent was when he or she displayed a
 gun (in self-defense or otherwise), specific reasons why the
 respondent displayed a gun, how the other individual reacted when the
 respondent displayed the gun, how the individual knew the respondent
 had a gun, whether the police were contacted for specific self-defense
events, and if not, why not.
description: Response Rates: Of the households randomly selected for the
 survey, 27 percent refused to participate. Once the interviews began,
less than 2 percent did not complete the entire survey.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used.
description: Stratified random sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Survey Data
DS2: Open-Ended Verbatim Responses
description: All households in the United States.
description: (1) Part 2 is an ASCII text file consisting of
 verbatim responses to open-ended survey questions. (2) The user guide,
 codebook, and data collection instrument are provided by ICPSR as a
 Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed
 by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader
 software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to
 obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web
site.