National Study of Private Ownership of Firearms in the United States, 1994 (ICPSR 6955)
Version Date: Oct 8, 1998 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
The Police Foundation
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06955.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
This data collection consists of a survey of private ownership of firearms by adults in the United States. Respondents who both did and did not own firearms were included. The variables cover topics such as the number and type of guns owned privately, methods of, and reasons for, firearms acquisition, the storage and carrying of guns, the defensive use of firearms against criminal attackers, and reasons for and against firearm ownership. Basic demographic variables include sex, age, education, and employment.
Citation View help for Citation
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
HideTime Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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The user guide, codebook, and data collection instruments are provided 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 through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
To learn more about the role of firearms in crime, the National Institute of Justice sponsored, through a grant to the Police Foundation, a nationally representative survey on private ownership and use of firearms by American adults. The research covered topics such as: (1) the size, composition, and ownership of the nation's private gun inventory, (2) methods of, and reasons for, firearms acquisition, (3) the storage and carrying of guns, and (4) the defensive use of firearms against criminal attackers.
Study Design View help for Study Design
The Police Foundation contracted with Chilton Research Services to conduct the survey. Minimums were established for the number of completed interviews with racial minorities and gun-owning households. Such households were more likely to be included in the final sample. Weights were calculated to adjust for this design feature.
Sample View help for Sample
National probability sample.
Universe View help for Universe
Adults living in the United States.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
telephone interviews
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
The data contain variables on methods of firearms acquisition, use of firearms, number and types of firearms owned, storage and carrying of guns, and reasons for and against firearm ownership. Basic demographic variables include sex, age, education, and employment of the respondent.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
Approximately 50 percent.
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
None.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
1998-10-08
Version History View help for Version History
2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
- The Police Foundation. NATIONAL STUDY OF PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF FIREARMS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1994. ICPSR version. Radnor, PA: Chilton Research Services [producer], 1994. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1998. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06955.v1
1998-10-08 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Standardized missing values.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.