What Gun Safety and Access Policies did Participants Think would be Effective in Preventing Accidental Gun Deaths?

Firearm-related incidents are often highly publicized tragedies that fuel unproductive political debates on gun policies at the local, state, and national levels. Current best practices in safe gun storage suggest that caregivers can protect their children from injury or death from an accidental gun discharge by keeping guns unloaded, locked up, and stored separately from their ammunition (Crifasi, Doucette, McGinty, Webster, & Barry, 2018). Child access prevention mechanisms including trigger locks, lock boxes, gun safes, and safe storage legislation are encouraged by the American Academy of Pediatrics (Dowd & Sege, 2012). This study gathers quantitative responses from 1,021 participants using an online survey to observe individuals’ perceptions of gun storage and gun safety policies. The data gathered may be used to further understand people\u27s views on five gun safety and gun storage policies that could reduce accidental firearm related deaths among children and adults. Significant correlations that illuminate relationships between perceptions of storage policies and individual demographic data may help guide public messaging strategies that may be used to promoting safer gun storage practices in U.S. homes, especially those with children