Of the studies I’ve seen, there were varying levels of controlling for other factors. Studies involving driving habits tended to look at correlations between a tendency to have a gun in the car and aggressive driving/road rage. So they weren’t looking at why people had guns. However, I do recollect seeing at least one study that looked at people’s behavior before and after having a gun, and tracking changes in behavior.
There certainly is a rural/urban divide - the types of guns people have is a part of that, as rural folk are far more likely to have guns used as tools, and urban folk more as parts of power fantasies. Though my mother grew up in a rural area where everyone hunted - my grandfather was actually a game warden - and I was rather shocked how many of her classmates died in hunting accidents or committed suicide with guns. A different kind of gun violence from urban areas.
