Purpose: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of household gun ownership and childhood gun-violence across the 50 United States to identify potential areas for policy intervention. We hypothesized that increasing household gun ownership is significantly associated with increasing proportion of childhood gunshot wounds (GSWs) occurring in the home.

Methods: From >36 million pediatric hospitalizations in the Kids' Inpatient Database (KID; 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009), we evaluated temporal trends using variance-weighted least squares (vWLS) regression. We estimated state gun ownership using the most recent data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS; 2004). vWLS regression assessed the relationship between %-households containing guns (BRFSS2004) and %-childhood GSWs occurring in the home (vs. other locations; KID2009). The β regression coefficient represents an increase (β>0) or decrease (β<0) in %-childhood home GSWs that can be expected for a 1% change in household gun ownership.