In 2015, 1 in 3 homes with kids had guns, and 21 percent of those homes had at least one firearm that was both loaded and unlocked. As a result, about 4.6 million kids lived in households where firearms were loaded and unlocked.

The findings of this nationally representative survey study were updated as of April 2021, 12 months after an unprecedented and sustained increase in firearm purchases.

Data come from a nationally representative survey of US adults conducted from April 15 to 26, 2021, with respondents taken from an online sample size of 55 000 US adults recruited using address-based sampling.

Participants of the panel were asked a series of questions about firearm ownership in the home, as well as whether they themselves possessed firearms.

They were asked questions like Do you personally own a
working gun (yes/no), Does anyone else in your household own a working gun (yes/no/don’t know)? Firearm owners were asked (1) Do you store any of the guns you keep in or around your home loaded (yes/no)? (2) Do you store any of the guns you keep in or around your home unlocked (yes/no)? and, if they answered yes to both questions, (3) Do you store any of the guns you keep in or around your home both loaded and unlocked (yes/no)? Race and ethnicity were self-reported, using
profile categories supplied by the survey firm (Ipsos).

Of the 29,985 members only 19,049 almost 63.5 percent people responded to the survey.

Overall, 9144 (48.0 percent) of respondents were men, 9905 (52.0 percent) were women, 62.0 percent were White non-Hispanic, and 33.3 percent lived in families with children under the age of 18.

40.4 percent of people with children who responded to the poll lived in a household with weapons.

Of these, 29.3 percent possessed firearms, whereas 11.1 percent lived in a home with firearms but did not personally own one.

The mean number of children per firearm-owning household with children was identical to the mean number of children per firearm-owning household without children.

The majority of gun owners with children were white, married, resided in either a rural or suburban location, and had some college education. Unlocked guns were found in 36.1 percent of the cases, while loaded firearms were found in 37.1 percent. 15.0 percent kept at least one loaded and unlocked firearm (least safe), while 44.1 percent kept all firearms empty and locked.

According to these findings, about 30 million kids lived in households with firearms in April 2021, which is 7 million more than in 2015.

Gun owners with children were more likely to have all
household firearms locked and unloaded in 2021 (44.1 percent) compared with 2015 (29 percent) and were slightly less likely to have firearms that were both loaded and unlocked (15.0 percent vs 21 percent).

Source: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.48823

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