Perception of Weapon Availability and New Sources for Weapon Knowledge in a Convenient Sample of Croatian Youth

Abstract

The aim of this research is to examine the perception of weapon availability and new sources for weapon knowledge of young people from Croatia. The last research about weapons (attitudes, availability, knowledge) in Croatia was conducted 12 years ago and there has been no significant research since so there is a serious gap of information in this field. 82 students (59% males and 41% females) in the age between 18 to 24 from the University of Applied Sciences Velika Gorica participated in this survey. The questionnaire included the introductory instructions and questions about sociodemographic data, questions about the weapons perception and knowledge. The results show that 88% of young people find it easy to get a weapon in the time interval of 2-7 days (30.9%). In the real environment, weapons are most easily reachable in specialized gun stores (82%), in the streets (72%) and in schools (44.1%). Results of online availability of weapons show that 68.3% of participants believe that it is possible to obtain weapons through online shopping and 61% through online forums. The largest source of knowledge about weapons is Internet (71.5%). Almost half of the students perceives that firearms are available in schools and almost third that it is available in colleges. It seems that firearms are more accessible in the real physical environment than online but students learn more about guns through the Internet and media than in the physical environment. Our results may indicate possible weapons availability to young people in Croatia.