![]() ![]() ![]() From 2006 to 2016, the number of guns reported stolen from individuals increased by approximately 60%.Nationally–representative survey data suggests that approximately 380,000 guns are stolen from individual gun owners each year.These guns may be diverted to the underground market, where they are used in crime. Unsecured weapons in homes and vehicles are also fueling an epidemic of gun thefts across the country. Numerous studies over the past 20 years have found that child access prevention laws can reduce suicide and unintentional gun deaths and injuries among children and teens by up to 54%, with the greatest reductions occurring in states which require safe storage of firearms.Estimates suggest that even modest increases in the number of American homes safely storing firearms could prevent almost a third of youth gun deaths due to suicide and unintentional firearm injury. ![]() This makes these laws incredibly effective at preventing gun deaths and injuries among children and teens. Safe firearm storage helps prevent gun deaths and injuries in children, and research suggests that CAP and safe storage laws increase safe storage behavior. Several studies have shown that the risk of suicide and unintentional shootings among youth increases in homes where guns are kept loaded and/or unlocked.Studies show that between 70 and 90% of guns used in youth suicides, unintentional shootings among children, and school shootings perpetrated by shooters under the age of 18 are acquired from the home or the homes of relatives or friends.Household guns, often the most easily accessible firearms for youth, are a major source of weapons used in school shootings, youth suicides, and unintentional shooting deaths among children. Nearly a quarter of parents did not know that their children had handled a gun in their house. Many of these children handled guns without their parents’ knowledge.Although 70% of parents reported that adolescents could not independently access firearms in their household, over one-third of children belonging to those households reported being able to access the firearm in less than five minutes.3 Many children know where their parents keep their guns and have accessed household guns - even if their parents think otherwise. Laws preventing guns from being left unattended and unsecured can help reduce these numbers and save lives.Ĥ.6 million minors in the US live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm. Unsecured guns are accessible to people who work in or break into the home, minors, and other unauthorized individuals. 1 In fact, nearly a quarter of all gun owners report storing all of their guns in an unlocked location in the home. More than half of all gun owners store at least one gun unsafely-without any locks or other safe storage measures. In contrast, safe storage laws require unattended firearms to be stored in a certain way. Generally speaking, CAP laws impose a penalty on someone who fails to secure an unattended firearm and leaves it accessible to an unsupervised minor. Hundreds of thousands of firearms are also stolen from homes, vehicles, and individuals each year, funneling guns into an underground market where many of them are sold to people who use them to commit violent crimes.Ĭhild access prevention (CAP) and safe storage laws promote responsible firearm storage practices and hold gun owners accountable for failing to take simple yet important measures to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands. When guns are not stored safely or securely and they are accessible to unsupervised minors, the risk of death or injury significantly increases. Unsecured guns pose clear safety risks, particularly to children. Comprehensive child access prevention and safe storage laws are an incredibly effective tool to curb gun deaths and injuries among children and teens. ![]()
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