Open AccessEmployer Policies Toward Guns and the Risk of Homicide in the Workplace
Author(s) -
Dana Loomis,
Stephen W. Marshall,
Myduc Ta
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2003.033535
Subject(s) - homicide , occupational safety and health , odds ratio , suicide prevention , injury prevention , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , odds , confidence interval , environmental health , population , medicine , demography , criminology , psychology , sociology , logistic regression , pathology
This population-based case-control study of North Carolina workplaces evaluated the hypothesis that employers' policies allowing firearms in the workplace may increase workers' risk of homicide. Workplaces where guns were permitted were about 5 times as likely to experience a homicide as those where all weapons were prohibited (adjusted odds ratio=4.81; 95% confidence interval=1.70, 13.65). The association remained after adjustment for other risk factors. The findings suggest that policies allowing guns in the workplace might increase workers' risk of homicide.