It is well known that the risks associated with keeping a gun in the home far outweigh any protective benefit the gun may have against intruders. Yet a study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers, which appeared in the Jan. 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that people who have received firearms training are significantly more likely to keep a gun in the home both loaded and unlocked. The researchers estimate that in approximately 10 percent of American homes a firearm is currently loaded and unlocked.
Some individuals advocate mandatory training as a way to improve gun storage practices.
In a random sample of 800 gun owners, Hemenway and his collaborators found that 29 percent kept a loaded gun in the house, and 21 percent said the gun was both loaded and unlocked. A majority of the gun owners surveyed said they have received formal firearms training. Yet the owners who had received such training were nearly twice as likely to keep their guns both loaded and unlocked-an obviously dangerous way to store a firearm. Previous studies have shown that many firearm fatalities are not premeditated, but occur during domestic arguments. Fatalities also frequently involve children playing with a loaded gun.