• David Hemenway, Deborah Azrael, and Matthew Miller.
• Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
• Inj. Prev. 2018 Jun 1; 24 (3): 213-217.

ObjectiveOne way that guns get into the wrong hands is via gun sales without a background check. While the large majority of Americans support laws requiring universal background checks, no prior study has assessed whether Americans think it is acceptable behaviour to sell a gun to a stranger without a background check, whether or not there is a law against it.MethodsWe sponsored a nationally representative survey of over 3900 American adults, oversampling gun owners, using an online panel provided by the survey firm Growth for Knowledge.ResultsOver 72% of American adults agree or strongly agree with the statement that 'whether it is legal or not, it is NOT acceptable to sell a gun to a stranger without a background check' and 11% disagree or strongly disagree. Subgroups less likely to agree are young adults, men, conservatives, those with less than a high school education and gun owners.ConclusionReducing the number of guns sold without a background check could help reduce the flow of guns to felons. Changes in normative attitudes and behaviours, as well as changes in law, could help accomplish this goal. Most Americans, including gun owners, believe selling a gun to a stranger without a background check is not acceptable behaviour.© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

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