A Half Dozen New HICRC Journal Articles Have Already Been Published in 2026
All use data from our December 2024 national firearm survey (n = 12,860).
- New gun owners: From 2021-2024, over 11 million adults (4.2% of US adults) became new gun owners, almost 8 million who previously lived in a household without firearms and newly exposing almost 7 million children to household firearms. Women made up 46% of the new owners.
- Miller M, Fischer S, Azrael D. Firearm acquisition and new exposure to household firearms after the initial pandemic purchasing surge. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2006.
- Divesting guns: In the 5 years ending in 2024, almost 6 million adults divested themselves of all their personal firearms (45% women). Only about 20% cited safety concerns as the reason.
- Lee MS, Azrael D, Miller M. US adults who formerly owned firearms: incidence of and reasons for divestment. Injury Epidemiology. 2006.
- Gun theft victims: About 1.4% of gun owners (1 million adults) had a gun stolen in the past 5 years. Risk factors for having a gun stolen were carrying guns, storing a gun in the car, and storing guns unlocked and loaded.
- Hemenway D, Miller M, Mason E, Fischer S, Azrael D. Gun theft from private citizens in the US. Injury Epidemiology. 2006.
- Possession of privately made firearms (“ghost guns”): About 3 million Americans own some 10 million privately made firearms (PMF). About 1/3 of these guns were constructed from kits, 1/3 from unfinished parts, 1/6 were machined from raw materials, and 1/6 were 3-d printed. Half of the PMF have no serial number. Acquisitions made more than two years ago were less likely to include either serialization or a background check.
- Fletcher S, Azreal D, Miller M. Privately made firearms in the US. Injury Epidemiology. 2026.
- Misconceptions about mental health care and lawful gun ownership: Over 60% of gun owners incorrectly believe that disclosing information to a medical provider about depression, alcohol use disorder, dementia or suicidal thoughts would require staff to take actions to that would jeopardize their lawful ownership of a firearm.
- Simonetti JA, Azrael D, Miller M. Misconceptions about whether seeking mental care jeopardizes lawful firearm possession. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2026.
- False positive paradox in survey research: This essay reminds researchers of the importance of recognizing that the false positive paradox for the screening of rare diseases has applications to survey research involving the incidence of rare events–and thus the extrapolations of positive responses to rare events can lead to wild overestimates. Examples include estimates of defensive gun uses, direct exposure to public mass shootings, and the total number of guns stolen (though not the number of people who had a gun stolen).
- Hemenway D. False positive paradox in survey research: examples from gun studies. Injury Prevention. 2026.
