Are household firearms stored safely? It depends on whom you ask

Objective. To determine gun storage practices in gun-owning households with children. Design. National random digit-dial telephone survey of 2521 households cond ucted in March 1999 through July 1999. This study uses a subsample of 434 h ouseholds with children <18 years old in which a respondent reported either : 1) personally owning a gun, or 2) living in a gun-owning household but no t owning a gun themselves. Respondents were asked whether any household gun was currently stored loaded, and, if yes, whether any gun was currently st ored loaded and unlocked. Results. Twenty-one percent of gun owners compared with 7% of nonowners rep orted that a household gun was stored loaded, while 9% and 2%, respectively , reported that a household gun was stored loaded and unlocked. Nongun owne rs were significantly more likely than were gun owners to be female (87% vs 22%) and to report that they lived in a house with only 1 gun (70% vs 57%) and no handguns (51% vs 31%). Based on the reports of actual gun owners (n = 252), households with children <13 years old were significantly less lik ely to store a gun loaded and unlocked (multivariate odds ratio: .1;95% con fidence interval:.0,.4) than were households with teenagers only. Conclusions. We find that among gun-owning households with children, nongun owners report significantly lower rates of guns stored loaded and unlocked than do gun owners. These findings are consistent with recent studies that have found that married men are far more likely to report household gun ow nership than are married women, and that gun users are far more likely to r eport that a gun is stored loaded or loaded and unlocked than are never use rs. Our findings suggest that nongun owners, the vast majority of whom are women (87%), may be unaware that guns in their homes are stored in a manner that experts agree is unsafe. Our findings reinforce the importance of many pediatricians' current effort s to offer anticipatory guidance about firearms to gun-owning families, and , in addition, suggest that this guidance can be adapted depending on wheth er the physician is speaking with a gun-owning or nongun-owning parent. In particular, because gun owners (mostly fathers) are less likely to bring ch ildren to the pediatrician's office than are nonowners (mostly mothers), ph ysicians should take advantage of any opportunities that they have to addre ss gun-related issues with parents who personally own guns. More commonly, physicians can encourage nongun owners to participate more fully in househo ld decision-making about gun storage by letting them know not only about re commended storage practices, but also that many nonowners may not know how guns are actually stored in their own homes.