Safe gun storage

Safe gun storage is imperative to your child’s safety. Read more for tips on how to safely store your firearms.

In this post, guest blogger, April Oboikowitch, will be discussing safe firearm storage and why it is so important that we normalize discussing guns with other adults.

After I had my first (of three) children, I attended a presentation that focused on guns, safety, and children. It really spoke to me because it was not political, and it gave me the tools to start some difficult conversations with other adults in my life. I now give that same presentation to companies, school districts, mom groups, and countless other organizations.

It is a heartbreaking fact that in 2020, firearms became the leading cause of death among children in the United States. 

With more guns in more homes due to unprecedented gun sales over the past couple years, it is more important than ever for parents and caregivers to know how secure storage protects children.

Today, more than one third of U.S. homes contain at least one gun.¹ And an estimated 4.6 million children live in a home with a loaded, unlocked gun. 

So what are the consequences of unsecured guns? When we are talking about children 0-17 years old, the consequences of unsecured guns include unintentional shootings, suicide, and school shootings. 

Unintentional gun deaths make up about 5 percent of annual gun deaths among children.² Most of these incidents occur in the home, with adults present somewhere in the house. 

About 40 percent of annual child gun deaths are suicides.³ One study showed that over 80 percent of children under the age of 18 who died by gun suicide used a gun belonging to a parent or relative.⁴ Just think about how many lives could be saved if those parents or relatives had properly stored their guns. For people of all ages, access to a gun increases the risk of death by suicide by three times.⁵

When we are talking about school shooters under the age of 18, the majority of those shooters obtained their guns from their own home or the home of a friend or relative. Again, how many school shootings could have been prevented by proper storage at home? 

So what can we do as community members to prevent these tragedies? 

Be SMART is a framework designed to help parents and adults normalize conversations about gun safety and take responsible actions that can prevent child gun deaths and injuries.

The “S” in SMART stands for “Secure all guns in your home and vehicles.”

How do you properly store a gun? Guns should be stored locked, unloaded, separate from ammunition.

Contrary to popular belief, storage devices do not prevent owners from readily accessing their guns. There is a common myth that storage devices negate the self-defense purpose of owning a gun by putting time-consuming barriers between the gun owner and their means of defense.⁶ The reality is that there are many affordable options for firearm storage that provide owners with access to guns in a matter of seconds while still preventing access by children.⁷

Most police stations will give out simple cable locks for free. There are also many affordable options online. Here are some examples of safe storage methods and costs: 

The “M” in SMART stands for “Model Responsible Behavior.” While it is important to talk to your children about guns, it is always an adult’s responsibility to make sure a child does not gain access to an unsecured gun. Most children know where the gun is kept in their household, and one third of children have reported actually handling their parents’ guns. 

Securing your firearms and modeling responsible behavior around guns will save children’s lives. 

Now that you know how to properly store a gun, I will discuss how to talk to your children about guns, and how to ask other people about the presence of unsecured guns in their homes in my next blog post.

*Written by guest blogger: April Oboikowitch

Other helpful blog posts:

• Practical allergy safety tips for holiday meals
• 10 car seat safe coats & covers
• Why bright colored swimwear is important for your child’s safety
• Water safety tips and our favorite life jackets for your kids
• 5 common chocking foods and how to safely feed them to your baby

¹ Aaron Karp, “Estimating Global Civilian-Held Firearms Numbers,” (Small Arms Survey, June 2018), https://bit.ly/3snZ9fH; General Social Survey, 2018, Data Explorer, https://bit.ly/2BZhtky.

² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Underlying Cause of Death. A yearly average was developed using five years of the most recent available data: 2016 to 2020. Ages 0 to 17.

³ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Underlying Cause of Death. A yearly average was developed using five years of most recent available data: 2016 to 2020. Children aged 0 to 17

⁴ Renee M. Johnson et al., “Who Are the Owners of Firearms Used in Adolescent Suicides?” Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 40, no. 6, (2010): 609–11

⁵ Andrew Anglemyer, Tara Horvath, and George Rutherford, “The Accessibility of Firearms and Risk for Suicide and Homicide Victimization Among Household Members: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Annals of Internal Medicine 160, no. 2 (2014): 101–10

⁶ Lott JR, Whitley JE. Safe-storage gun laws: accidental deaths, suicides, and crime. Journal of Law & Economics. 2001;44(S2):659-689.

⁷ Hung E. 4 best bedside pistol gun safes for quick access. Pew Pew Tactical. January 23, 2019. https:// bit.ly/2Rb2DiI.