California Safety and Wellbeing Survey

CSaWS_2018

In 2018, UCFC fielded a first-of-its-kind survey covering a wide range of topics related to firearm ownership, preferences, and practices, and exposure to violence and its consequences in California. This kind of information has not been collected in the state since the 1970s. More than 2,500 California adults responded to the survey and their answers have been weighted to be statistically representative of the adult population of the state.

 

Below you will find links to the survey findings in peer-reviewed academic journals, as well as corresponding two-page fact sheets. Feel free to download or print these fact sheets for use in your own work.

CSaWS_Brief_Kravitz-WirtzFirearm Ownership and Acquisition in California: Findings from the 2018 California Safety and Wellbeing Survey

We asked Californians if they owned firearms and when, where, and how they got them. An estimated 4.2 million California adults personally own a gun, and an additional 3.1 million live in a home with someone else who does.

View a summary of the results here. 

Read the complete study in Injury Prevention (December 2019).

Brief_PallinCalifornia Public Opinion On Health Professionals Talking With Patients About Firearms

We asked Californians how appropriate it is for doctors and other health professionals to talk with their patients about gun safety under a variety of circumstances.

View a summary of the results here. 

Read the complete study in Health Affairs (October 2019).

CSaWS_Brief_SchleimerFirearm Ownership in California: A Latent Class Analysis

We asked people who owned firearms about the types of guns they own, why they own them, and how they store them. Using a statistical technique called Latent Class Analysis, we identified five classes of firearm ownership in California differentiated by these gun ownership-related characteristics.

View a summary of the results here. 

Read the complete study in Injury Prevention (October 2019).

Brief_Pallin2Public Opinion On Firearm Injury Prevention Proposals in California

We asked Californians whether they supported or opposed two firearm policy proposals.

View a summary of the results here. 

Read the complete study in JAMA Open Network (January 2020).

CSaWS_MythsJan2020Dispelling Myths about Firearm Violence

The lack of research on firearm-related harm contributes to misconceptions about the problem. In the fall of 2018, CSaWS asked Californians what they knew about firearm injury and death: who is dying from firearms, by what intent, and more. 

 

View the myths and truths, last updated in January 2020. 

CSaWS in the News

Read an Injury Prevention blog post on the CSaWS LCA study: Firearm injury prevention: Is progress in the details?

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Related Research

In The Stock and Flow of U.S. Firearms: Results from the 2015 National Firearms Survey, Azrael et al. describe firearm ownership in the United States, including the numbers of gun owners and of guns owned, their types, and how they were acquired.

More from the Violence Prevention Research Program

This content is solely the responsibility of the studies' authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center.