ABSTRACT
An article-length overview of all the gun research, "Ten Essential Observations on Guns in America," was originally presented at a National Conference of State Legislatures in New Orleans in July 1994. Marston's assignment was to crosstab the gun ownership question with the usual array of background variables. The number and variety of guns owned by our juveniles suggest that guns are abundant and readily accessible to juveniles in the neighborhoods from which our respondents are drawn. Gun control advocates have a long history of singling out "bad" guns for policy attention. Discussion of juvenile crime is dominated by the imagery of guns, drugs, gangs, and wanton violence. The insistence that we must keep guns from "falling into the wrong hands" is focused on mental illness and many think that a mental illness history should be included as a reason to deny gun ownership.
