TY - JOUR T1 - Examining the relationship between the prevalence of guns and homicide rates in the USA using a new and improved state-level gun ownership proxy JF - Injury Prevention JO - Inj Prev SP - 424 LP - 426 DO - 10.1136/injuryprev-2014-041187 VL - 20 IS - 6 AU - Michael Siegel AU - Craig S Ross AU - Charles King Y1 - 2014/12/01 UR - http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/20/6/424.abstract N2 - Determining the relationship between gun ownership levels and firearm homicide rates is critical to inform public health policy. Previous research has shown that state-level gun ownership, as measured by a widely used proxy, is positively associated with firearm homicide rates. A newly developed proxy measure that incorporates the hunting license rate in addition to the proportion of firearm suicides correlates more highly with state-level gun ownership. To corroborate previous research, we used this new proxy to estimate the association of state-level gun ownership with total, firearm, and non-firearm homicides. Using state-specific data for the years 1981–2010, we modelled these rates as a function of gun ownership level, controlling for potential confounding factors. We used a negative binomial regression model and accounted for clustering of observations among states. We found that state-level gun ownership as measured by the new proxy, is significantly associated with firearm and total homicides but not with non-firearm homicides. ER -