Gun acquisition in Mexico 2012–18: findings from Mexico’s National Crime Victimization Survey

Published online on January 21, 2021

Abstract

Data from Mexico’s National Crime Victimization Surveys (Encuesta Nacional de Victimización y Percepción sobre Seguridad Pública, ENVIPE) indicate that 1.89 million Mexican households acquired a gun from 2012 to 2018. The objective of this article is to analyse factors associated with gun acquisition in Mexico. We analysed data from the 2013 through 2019 ENVIPE surveys and ran a binary logistic regression. Our results show that gun acquisition in Mexico is associated with the demographics of the head of the household, characteristics of the household, perception of insecurity, illegal activities around a household, victimization and mistrust in security agencies. This study adds to efforts of understanding gun acquisition worldwide while also contributing to the complex research of guns and violence in Latin America, specifically in Mexico.