More than half of US adults or their family members have encountered gun violence: they’ve been threatened with a firearm; they’ve witnessed a shooting; or a relative has been killed by a gun, including by suicide, according to nationally representative poll of 1271 people. Black adults were about twice as likely as White adults to report having seen someone being shot or to have had a relative who was killed by a gun in the Kaiser Family Foundation survey. [JAMA Network]

About 40% of respondents reported living in a household with guns. Most said their gun storage did not reflect accepted safety practices such as storing guns unloaded in a locked location separate from ammunition.

Although the medical community recognizes that gun violence represents a public health crisis, only 14% of adults surveyed had a physician or health care professional ask about gun ownership or firearms in the home. Pediatricians tended to raise the subject more often, with 26% of parents reporting they had been asked about guns in the home. Overall, less than 10% of adults, including parents, said a health care professional had talked with them specifically about gun safety.

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