One in three US veteran firearm owners keeps a gun loaded and unlocked

Credit: CC0 Public Domain One third of United States Armed Forces Veterans store at least one firearm loaded with ammunition and unlocked, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that reports on the first survey of a nationally representative sample of this group regarding storage practices. Unsafe firearm storage practices appeared to be strongly related to perceptions about the need to keep firearms for protection. This easy access to lethal means increases suicide risk in an already vulnerable population. "We know that nearly half of all US Veterans have firearms, and like many non-Veteran adults, it is common for them to store at least one gun loaded and unlocked. The challenge we uncovered, although I think we already suspected this, is that firearm safety practices are strongly related to whether individuals keep their firearms for protection," explained lead investigator Joseph A. Simonetti, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA. "We recommend that VA providers work on communication strategies to enable Veterans to make informed decisions about firearm safety by balancing the perceived benefits of firearm access against the thoroughly demonstrated risks of that access for those with elevated suicide risk." The survey was completed by 3,949 US adults, of whom 561 were US Veterans who own firearms. The prevalence of unsafe firearm storage ranges substantially within the group surveyed, from 9 percent to 65 percent, across individual, household, and firearm ownership characteristics, and is strongly […]

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