Criminal charge history, handgun purchasing, and demographic characteristics of legal handgun purchasers in California

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of all California handgun purchasers and state residents in 2001^a

	Handgun purchasers^b	Handgun purchasers < 50 years old^c	State population, 21 + ^d
Total population	110,729	79,927	22,716,353
Median Age (IQR)	40 (30–51)	34 (27–42)	43 (32–56)
Male (%)	91.56	91.03	48.61
Race/ethnicity (%)
White	73.37	68.85	51.20
Black	4.90	5.40	5.77
Hispanic	12.68	15.35	27.42
Asian	6.96	8.03	11.85
Native American	0.58	0.60	0.55
Other	1.51	1.77	3.21
Non-metropolitan county (%)	5.20	4.34	2.48^e

^aLimited to people aged 21 and older on or after the 10-day waiting period
^b56 missing race/ethnicity; 1 missing county assignment
^c29 missing race/ethnicity; 1 missing county assignment
^dState population is based on data from the American Community Survey for California in 2001, weighted to be representative
^eBased on data from the 2000 decennial census

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