During a 6-week period in the winter of 1990-91, a cross-sectional survey of 11th-grade students in the Seattle, Wash., Public School District was conducted. The sample involved 970 students. The survey solicited self- reports of handgun ownership, perceived access to handguns, racial/ethnic identity, social status (Hollingshead's Two Factor Index of Social Position), and social deviance (Seattle Self-Report Instrument). Thirty-four percent of the students reported easy access to handguns (47 percent of males and 22 percent of females), and 6.4 percent reported owning a handgun (11.4 percent of males and 1.5 percent of females). Reported firearm experiences indicate a high rate of handgun use; 33 percent of handgun owners had fired at someone; 9.7 percent of female students reported a firearm homicide or suicide that involved family members of close friends; and 6 percent of male students reported carrying a handgun to school sometime in the past. Handgun ownership was more common among students who reported deviant behaviors. Adjusting for age, gender, and racial/ethnic group and controlling for covariation among the problem behaviors, gang membership, sentencing by a judge, selling drugs, suspension or expulsion from school, and assault and battery were associated with handgun ownership; however, 22 percent of male handgun owners did not report any of these behaviors. The study concludes that the availability of handguns to the urban high school students surveyed is pervasive and is not limited to high-risk groups. 5 tables and 30 references