Associations between deployment experiences, safety-related beliefs, and firearm ownership among women Veterans

Among women Veterans, firearms are the leading suicide means. This has prompted efforts to elucidate factors associated with women Veterans' firearm ownership. This cross-sectional study examined if deployment experiences were associated with firearm ownership among women Veterans and if safety-related beliefs mediated these associations.

492 previously deployed post-9/11 women Veterans participated in a national survey that included the Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory-2, subscales of the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory and Posttraumatic Maladaptive Beliefs Scale, and firearm ownership questions. Path analysis was used.

Perceived threat during deployment was associated with firearm ownership, irrespective of safety-related beliefs. Indirect effects did not support that safety-related beliefs mediated relations between deployment experiences and firearm ownership. The other deployment experiences (sexual harassment, sexual assault, general harassment, combat experiences) were not indirectly associated with firearm ownership, nor were safety-related beliefs (negative cognitions about the world, threat of harm, beliefs about others' reliability and trustworthiness) directly associated with firearm ownership. In an exploratory serial mediation analysis, perceived threat during deployment mediated the association between combat experiences and firearm ownership. In a sensitivity analysis examining firearm acquisition following military service, results were similar, except the indirect effect of combat experiences upon firearm acquisition through perceived threat was not significant.

Post-9/11 women Veterans' firearm acquisition and ownership may relate to specific deployment experiences, such as perceived threat; however, longitudinal studies are needed to fully ascertain this. Efforts to address firearm access among post-9/11 women Veterans may benefit from assessing heightened sense of danger during deployment.