Safe Storage

Safe firearm storage end family fire PSA
Safe firearm storage end family fire PSA

Gun owners play an essential role in preventing gun violence.

Gun storage may look different for everyone, but locking all of your guns is a great first step to preventing unintended access. If all of your guns are locked, consider storing your guns unloaded and away from ammunition. Keeping our guns locked, unloaded, separate from ammunition, and inaccessible to children provides the most security. By doing this, we can prevent incidents of family fire such as unintentional shootings, firearm suicide, and other forms of misuse, while still providing you with quick access when you need it.

Take the next step to store all of your guns more securely and protect your loved ones and yourself from family fire.

Types of Safe Storage

  • CABLE &
    TRIGGER LOCKS

    Cable locks run a cable through the chamber of the gun and out the magwell to prevent the gun from being fired. A trigger lock is a small two-piece lock that fits over or through the trigger guard to prevent the trigger from being pulled. Even if a gun is secured using a cable or trigger lock, it is still important to store it inaccessible to children. Cable and trigger locks are often given away for free by law enforcement and community organizations and are widely available for purchase, ranging in price from $5-20.

  • LOCK BOXES & CARRYING
    CASES

    Lock boxes and carrying cases are small, lightweight storage options commonly used for transporting guns. Lock boxes and carrying cases can range in price from $15 to $200.

  • GUN SAFES &
    CABINETS

    Home gun safes and cabinets are available in a variety of sizes and require a key, combination, or biometric data to unlock. Some safes can be mounted on walls or bedside tables for an easier to access location. Biometric technology allows a user to unlock the safe using a fingerprint or other unique biological data, providing a balance of quick access and secure storage. Gun safes and cabinets can range in price from $50 to $800+ depending on the size, locking mechanism, and other factors.

  • OFF-SITE
    STORAGE

    Firearm retailers, shooting ranges, and/or law enforcement facilities in your area may offer off-site gun storage. Ranging from temporary to long-term options, off-site storage can offer an additional layer of protection when you need it. This could include when you have children in the home, when you are traveling, or if a loved one is in crisis.

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The importance of safe storage in preventing firearm injury and death.

Safe gun storage can reduce unintentional injuries, suicides, and intentional harm, including school shootings, by stopping unauthorized access.

  • Nearly 1 in 4 children have handled a gun in their home without their parents knowing. Safe gun storage helps prevent their curiosity from turning into tragedy.

  • Access to a gun triples the risk of death by suicide. In 75% of youth firearm suicides for which the gun storage method could be identified, the gun was stored loaded and unlocked. Adding time and space between an individual in crisis and a gun decreases the risk of suicide.

  • 76% of school shooters under the age of 18 accessed the gun from the home of family or friends. Safe gun storage can decrease unintended access to guns and help keep our kids and families safe.

  • As of 2021, 44% of U.S. adults live in a firearm-owning household and one in three adults personally owns a firearm

  • An estimated 30 million children live in a home with at least one firearm, with 4.6 million children living in homes with unlocked and loaded guns.

  • One in four children has never handled a gun without their parents’ knowledge.

  • Every day, eight children are unintentionally shot or killed due to an unlocked or unsupervised firearm in the home.

  • If just 20% of gun-owning parents locked all household firearms, up to 32% of youth firearm suicides and unintentional firearm fatalities could be prevented.

  • 70-90% of firearms used in unintentional shootings, school shootings, and suicides by minors are acquired from the home, or from the homes of friends or relatives.

Improperly storing guns can also contribute to guns entering the illegal market. Gun thefts from cars, homes, and gun dealers are a large source of black-market guns. Between 2010 and 2016, police recovered more than 23,000 stolen firearms, most of which were connected to kidnappings, armed robberies, sexual assaults, murders, and other violent crimes.

An estimated 30 million children live in a home with at least one firearm, with

4.6M

children living in homes with unlocked and loaded guns. In fact, one in four children has never handled a gun without their parents’ knowledge.

Source
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Woman holds up a sign reading protect kids not guns during a 2019 protest

Safe Storage and Child Access Prevention Laws

Woman holds up a sign reading protect kids not guns during a 2019 protest

Safe firearm storage and child access prevention (CAP) laws are intended to increase safe storage behavior, prevent gun deaths and injuries among our nation’s youth, and prevent firearm thefts. On the federal level, there are no safe storage or child access prevention laws.

These laws take numerous forms. Generally, CAP laws place liability on a gun owner after they fail to keep a gun inaccessible to a minor. Safe storage laws create clear mandates for how firearms must be stored.

There are many other important legislative approaches to improving safe storage practices, including:

  • Requiring school districts and boards to provide information concerning firearm safety and secure storage to parents.

  • Providing tax credits for the purchase of safe storage devices.

  • Requiring dealers to post signage about safe storage requirements in their retail store; provide information about safe storage practices at the time of purchase; and require the purchase of a safe storage device with every firearm purchase

  • Funding and investment in public education campaigns to increase awareness and utilization of safe firearm storage practices. Forty-eight percent of gun owners who saw Brady’s End Family Fire campaign ads about safe firearm storage changed how or where they store their firearms to store them in a safer manner.

These laws work. Rates of unintentional shootings by children were 78% lower in states requiring secure storage when the gun is not in the owner’s possession, compared to states with no secure storage laws. Relatively modest increases in safe storage practices could reduce youth firearm fatalities by up to 32%. In fact, multiple studies from the past 20 years have found that CAP laws can reduce firearm suicide and unintentional gun deaths among children and teens by up to 54%.

  • Federal
    Legislation

    There is no federal law that requires gun owners to safely store their guns and prevent children from accessing them. The only federal regulation is a 2005 law that requires that all handguns sold by licensed dealers be accompanied by a secure safety device but does not require that these devices be used.

  • State
    Legislation

    26 states have child access prevention (CAP) and/or safe storage laws in place. 20 of these states have laws which impose criminal liability on people who store firearms where minors could or do gain access to the firearm.

  • Public
    Support

    The majority of Americans support mandating safe storage of firearms. A 2019 poll found that 78% of Americans are in favor of safe storage regulations, 60% of whom strongly support the measures. This support is bipartisan: 68% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats support safe storage, as well as the majority of gun owners (66%) and non-gun owners (85%).

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