Firearm Storage in Households With Children.

Importance: Children who live in households with firearms are several times more likely to die by suicide and unintentional firearm injury, compared with those in homes without guns. This risk can be mitigated by locking and unloading all household firearms. Objective: To describe firearm storage practices in homes with children overall and by the age of the youngest child in the household, and to estimate the number of children living in homes with firearms that are loaded and unlocked. Design, Setting, and Participants: A probability-based national survey study was conducted between December 18 and December 25, 2024, in the US. Eligible participants were firearm owners living with children younger than 18 years. Survey weights were incorporated to account for nonresponse and to produce nationally representative estimates. Exposure: Whether a child younger than 13 years lives in the household. Main Outcomes and Measures: The outcome of interest was firearm storage practices in the child's home, categorized as (1) at least 1 gun loaded and unlocked; (2) no guns loaded and unlocked, but at least 1 loaded and locked or unloaded and unlocked; and (3) all guns unloaded and locked. Results: A total of 879 respondents personally owned a gun, lived in a household with 1 or more children younger than 18 years, and provided full information about storage. Among these gun owners, 65.3% were aged 18 to 44 years, 63.8% were male, and 70.2% lived with children aged 0 to 12 years. An estimated 21.1% (95% CI, 18.3%-24.3%) reported at least 1 gun loaded and unlocked; 34.8% (95% CI, 31.4%-38.3%) that all firearms were unloaded and locked; and the remainder otherwise (ie, neither any guns loaded and unlocked, nor all locked and unloaded). Among gun-owning adults whose children were all aged 13 to 17 years, an estimated 26.1% (95% CI, 20.2%-33.0%) stored at least 1 firearm loaded and unlocked, compared with 17.1% (95% CI, 12.9%-22.2%) of those whose children were all younger than 13 years and 17.4% (95% CI, 11.6%-25.2%) of those with both adolescents and younger children. Extrapolating to the 2024 US population, an estimated 32.3 million children younger than 18 years lived in a household with firearms, of whom 6.7 million (95% CI, 5.7-7.5 million) lived in a household with at least 1 loaded and unlocked gun. Conclusions and Relevance: In this survey study of adult firearm owners who lived in households with children younger than 18 years, more than 1 in 5 reported that at least 1 firearm in their household was both loaded and unlocked, a practice more common when all children in the household were teenagers. More effective approaches to motivating parents to make their firearms inaccessible to both their teenagers and their younger children are needed.