Almost a third of American adults own a gun, but the rate varies widely by state and tops out at almost 62 percent of people in Alaska, new survey data show.

Gun ownership was closely tied to “social gun culture,” wherein family and friends also own guns and think less of non-gun owners, researchers found.

About 29 percent of people nationwide reported owning a gun. Only five percent of people in Delaware and six percent in Rhode Island owned a gun, compared to almost 62 percent in Alaska. More than half of people reported owning a gun in West Virginia, Arkansas, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Regionally, gun ownership was least common in the Northeast and most common in the South and West.

About 5 percent of people said they used their gun for hunting, and 10 percent reported attending gun safety classes.

http://www.wctrib.com/news/nation/3777318-experts-study-gun-culture-and-its-impact-gun-violence

Businesses and other organizations are facing growing gun violence and need to consider it in their risk management plans.

Of 160 active shooter incidents in the U.S. between 2000 and 2013, over 80% occurred at sites where people worked, according to an FBI study published in late 2013. Nearly 70% of the incidents ended in five minutes or less, with more than half of the incidents ending before police arrived.

Employers from a wide range of sectors, including Starbucks Corp., Cigna Corp., and most recently Uber Technologies Inc., have banned guns from the workplace in an effort to protect their employees and manage risk.

Employers are also incorporating active shooter emergency drills and training employees to communicate any threats that may lead to violence

http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20150630/NEWS06/150639986/risk-managers-offer-workplace-gun-violence-mitigation-tips?tags=|83|302

ISEHARA, Japan — Chiaki Sakurai heard a story from his shooting buddies about an American school in Japan.

“I heard that there’s an American school here that has a sign out front saying ‘No guns,’?” he said incredulously one day this week during a break from target practice at a shooting range. “The school has a sign, even though it’s in Japan!”

It’s not the prohibition that shocked Sakurai, a 56-year-old who has been shooting competitively for three decades, but the idea that such a sign would ever be needed. Why would anyone be carrying a gun at all, let alone into a school?

The story about the sign might be an urban legend, but Sakurai’s astonishment was totally unfeigned.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-japan-even-the-gun-enthusiasts-are-in-favor-of-gun-control/2015/06/27/283cfaea-19a6-11e5-bed8-1093ee58dad0_story.html