Survey reports more than half of gun owners don’t secure firearms

By Jacki Billings

More than half of gun owners aren’t locking up their guns, a recent survey indicated. (Photo: Jacki Billings)
More than half of polled gun owners report unsafe gun storage practices, according to a survey published by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in late February.
The internet based survey, which polled 1,444 gun owners in 2016 on their storage attitudes and habits, found that 54-percent of respondents indicated storing firearms in an unsafe manner. The study’s parameters for  safe storage included keeping all guns locked in a gun safe, cabinet, case or gun rack or, alternatively, storing firearms with a trigger or cable lock.
Assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research Cassandra Crifasi, PhD, MPH, said the results of the survey were alarming, pointing to household gun ownership as a factor in some homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings.
“Many bring guns into their homes for self-defense, but unsecured guns can lead to unintentional shootings, suicides, and tragic cases of troubled teens using guns to commit acts of violence,” Crifasi said in a statement. “The survey findings indicate a real public health emergency.”
In addition to attempting to unearth the methods by which gun owners stow firearms in the home,

Source: Guns.com