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Previous Volume 329:1084-1091 October 7, 1993 Number 15 Next

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ABSTRACT

Background It is unknown whether keeping a firearm in the home confers protection against crime or, instead, increases the risk of violent crime in the home. To study risk factors for homicide in the home, we identified homicides occurring in the homes of victims in three metropolitan counties.

Methods After each homicide, we obtained data from the police or medical examiner and interviewed a proxy for the victim. The proxies' answers were compared with those of control subjects who were matched to the victims according to neighborhood, sex, race, and age range. Crude and adjusted odds ratios were calculated with matched-pairs methods.

Results During the study period, 1860 homicides occurred in the three counties, 444 of them (23.9 percent) in the home of the victim. After excluding 24 cases for various reasons, we interviewed proxy respondents for 93 percent of the victims. Controls were identified for 99 percent of these, yielding 388 matched pairs. As compared with the controls, the victims more often lived alone or rented their residence. Also, case households more commonly contained an illicit-drug user, a person with prior arrests, or someone who had been hit or hurt in a fight in the home. After controlling for these characteristics, we found that keeping a gun in the home was strongly and independently associated with an increased risk of homicide (adjusted odds ratio, 2.7; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.6 to 4.4). Virtually all of this risk involved homicide by a family member or intimate acquaintance.

Conclusions The use of illicit drugs and a history of physical fights in the home are important risk factors for homicide in the home. Rather than confer protection, guns kept in the home are associated with an increase in the risk of homicide by a family member or intimate acquaintance.

Source Information

From the Departments of Internal Medicine (A.L.K., J.G.B., B.B.H.), Preventive Medicine (A.L.K.), Biostatistics and Epidemiology (A.L.K., G.S.), and Pathology (J.T.F), University of Tennessee, Memphis; the Departments of Pediatrics (F.P.R.), Epidemiology (F.P.R.), and Pathology (D.T.R), University of Washington, Seattle; Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, Seattle (F.P.R., J.P.); and the Departments of Biology (N.B.R., A.B.L.) and Epidemiology and Biostatistics (N.B.R.) and the Center for Adolescent Health (N.B.R.), Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Kellermann at the Emory Center for Injury Prevention, School of Public Health, Emory University, 1599 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA 30329.

Full Text of this Article

Related Letters:

Guns and Homicide in the Home
Litaker D., Blackman P. H., Saint Louis UniversitySt. Louis, MO 63108 , LeClaire J. E., Saint Louis UniversitySt. Louis, MO 63108 , Gillette R. D., Saint Louis UniversitySt. Louis, MO 63108 , Baranello P., Saint Louis UniversitySt. Louis, MO 63108 , Beckmann C. R.B., Saint Louis UniversitySt. Louis, MO 63108 , Pipas J. M., Saint Louis UniversitySt. Louis, MO 63108 , Kellermann A. L., Somes G., Rivara F. P., Saint Louis UniversitySt. Louis, MO 63108 , Kassirer J. P., Saint Louis UniversitySt. Louis, MO 63108
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 1994; 330:365-368, Feb 3, 1994. Correspondence

Guns and Homicide in the Home
Kellermann A. L.
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 1998; 339:928-929, Sep 24, 1998. Correspondence

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