Most gun owners store a gun unlocked at home, but do they prefer that other people do the same? This question is important because self-other discrepancies in views about guns may provide a foundation on which to develop information campaigns to change gun-related risk perceptions and reduce gun injuries and deaths (Aubel et al., 2025). Using a large, national probability sample of personal gun owners (N = 4,027) and a picture-based factorial experiment, we examine social preferences for gun storage.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of >12,000 chemicals used in commerce and industry. For Veterans, sources of contamination could include past exposure to firefighting foams, munitions, and groundwater contamination. (1, 2) Some PFAS can persist in the environment and serum half-lives range from 1.5 to 8.5 years in humans. (3) Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), 2-(N-methyl-perfluorooctane sulfonamido) acetic acid (MeFOSAA), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), and perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA) are nearly universally detected in the blood of the US population and are associated with deleterious metabolic, developmental, immunologic, and carcinogenic outcomes. (3, 4) The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) recommends clinical monitoring for individuals when summed serum concentrations of PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, MeFOSAA, PFDA, and PFUnDA are ≥ 20 ng/mL because of adverse health risks. Few studies compare PFAS concentrations in civilians to military servicemembers, and we identified none that examine national differences in concentrations by Veteran status. (1) To address this, we used nationally representative data to determine whether Veterans have higher serum PFAS concentrations compared to non-Veterans.