A new long-term study that has documented the lives of a diverse sample of children over the past three decades shows that the majority of gun carriers began to carry in adulthood, not adolescence. These two groups—which the authors call “adult-onset carriers” if they began carrying after 21 years of age and “adolescent-onset carriers” if their carrying started prior to 21 years of age—have very different patterns in exposure to violence prior to carrying, persistence in carrying, and in actual gun usage.

Researchers find a “dual pathway” for when people start carrying. Many of those who begin in adolescence do so after experiencing gun violence, but the majority of gun carriers start in adulthood, where no link between witnessing violence and carrying was found.