Firearm Training and Storage-Reply
- David Hemenway, PhD;
- Sara J. Solnick, MS;
- Deborah R. Azrael, MS
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
In Reply. —We surveyed a nationally representative sample of 800 US gun owners. We found that 21% kept a gun both loaded and unlocked in the home. Individuals who had received formal firearms training were significantly more likely to store a gun in this potentially unsafe manner.
Practically everything Dr Suter asserts in his letter is wrong. Contrary to his claim, we clearly differentiated adult-only homes and we explored the relationship between gun storage and the perceived risk of attack. We reported that guns were stored loaded and unlocked in 14% of gun-owning homes with children present, compared with 26% of gun-owning homes without children. Keeping a gun loaded and unlocked was significantly more likely when protection was one of the reasons for gun ownership. Still, a gun was kept loaded and unlocked in 13% of homes where protection was not one of the reasons for ownership. And in a
