A Descriptive Analysis of Mass Shootings in the United States From 2010 to 2020: The Relationship Between Firearm Dealership Density and Proximity to Mass Shooting Sites and a Comparison With McDonald's and Starbucks Retailers.

The public health community needs to better understand the complex factors that contribute to mass shootings in the United States (US). We explored how firearm dealership density related to geographic distance from mass shooting sites in the US in 2010-2020, and compared it with the corresponding density of Starbucks (Starbucks Corporation, Seattle, Washington, United States) and McDonald's (McDonald's Corporation, Chicago, Illinois, United States) outlets. We obtained locations of firearm dealerships, Starbucks, and McDonald's retailers, as well as mass shootings across the contiguous US from 2010 to 2020. We mapped buffer rings, at 1, 5, 10, 30, and 50 miles around the locations of each mass shooting. We compared the per area and per population density of the dealerships and the two types of retailers around mass shooting sites within each buffer ring. We identified 67 mass shootings from 2010-2020. We mapped 54,722 firearm dealerships, with 28.1% located within 50 miles of mass shootings. Within a 50-mile radius of shooting events, there were an average of 0.30 dealerships, while there were only 0.14 Starbucks and 0.12 McDonald's outlets per 10 square miles. There was an incremental reduction in the density of firearm dealerships, Starbucks, and McDonald's as the distance from the mass shooting site increased. Density per population did not show a similar relationship. Our findings suggest that the availability of firearms deserves more study as a contributing factor to mass shootings in the US. The high number, area, and population density of firearm dealerships compared to the other two retailers illuminate how numerous firearm dealerships are compared to common retailers in the US.

Neural bases of risky decisions involving nicotine vapor versus monetary reward.

Substantial effort has gone into neuroimaging studies of neural mechanisms underlying addiction. Human studies of smoking typically either give monetary reward during an fMRI task or else allow subjects to smoke outside the scanner, after the session. This raises a fundamental issue of construct validity, as it is unclear whether the same neural mechanisms process decisions about nicotine that process decisions about money. To address this, we developed a novel MR-compatible nicotine vaping device, such that access to nicotine vapor could be controlled and monitored. We recruited heavy smokers (Money: 45 subjects, 13 females and 32 males; Nicotine: 21 subjects, 4 females and 17 males) to perform a gambling task with nicotine and monetary reward on separate days. We collected BOLD fMRI data while they performed the task inside the scanner and analyzed it using general linear modeling, with inference based on cluster-size correction. This allowed a direct comparison between the neural mechanisms of choosing and receiving immediate drug vs. monetary reward. We found substantial differences in the neural mechanisms that underlie risky choices about money vs. drug reward, including a reversal of the well-known error effects in the medial prefrontal cortex.

The Association between Membership in the Sandwich Generation and Health Behaviors: A Longitudinal Study.

The current study examined the association between membership in the sandwich generation, defined as providing care to both children and parents or in-laws, and five health behaviors: checking the food label for health value when buying foods, using a seat belt, choosing foods based on health value, exercising regularly, and cigarette smoking. Participants (N=4943) were from a longitudinal study of a midwestern community-based sample. Regression analyses tested the unique effect of sandwich generation membership on health behaviors above and beyond demographic factors and prior levels of the same behavior. Compared to other caregivers and noncaregivers, multigenerational caregivers were less likely to check food labels and to choose foods based on health values. Multigenerational caregivers were less likely than noncaregivers and those who cared for children only to use seat belts, and they smoked marginally more cigarettes per day than those groups. Multigenerational caregivers were less likely than noncaregivers and those who cared for parents/in-laws only to exercise regularly. Thus, in general, healthy behaviors were diminished for multigenerational caregivers.

Multiple trajectories of cigarette smoking and the intergenerational transmission of smoking: a multigenerational, longitudinal study of a Midwestern community sample.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relation between developmental phenotypes of parental smoking (trajectories of smoking from adolescence to adulthood) and the intergenerational transmission of smoking to their adolescent children. DESIGN: A longitudinal, multigenerational study of a midwestern community sample followed individuals from adolescence into adulthood and was combined with Web-based assessment of participants' spouses and adolescent children. Mixture modeling identified multiple trajectories of smoking, and path analyses related these trajectories to adolescents' smoking (beyond both parents' current smoking). Potential mediations were parental education and adolescents' personality characteristics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The outcome measure was adolescent smoking. RESULTS: A parent's smoking trajectory had a unique effect on their adolescent's smoking, beyond both parents' current smoking and the parent's educational attainment. However, although adolescents' personality characteristics were related both to adolescent smoking and to their parents' smoking, these characteristics could not explain the effects of the parent's smoking trajectory. CONCLUSION: Parents whose smoking had an early onset, steep acceleration, high levels of smoking, and persistence over time had the highest risk for intergenerational transmission of smoking to their adolescent children.