Abstract
Adolescent access to firearms increases their risk of firearm injury. To examine adolescent firearm access in homes with guns, how storage may modify access, and discordance between parent and adolescent report of access. This survey study used data on parents and their adolescent children from a nationally representative online survey of adults in gun-owning households, conducted from June 30 to August 11, 2019. Individuals who owned firearms and parents of adolescents were oversampled. All parents living with a child aged 13 to 17 years were invited to have their child participate in a separate survey. Respondents with more than 1 adolescent living with them were asked to choose the child with the most recent birthday. Analyses were conducted from June 1, 2020, to January 4, 2021. Firearm access was assessed by asking adolescents how long it would take to access a loaded gun in their home. Parents were asked whether their child could independently access a household firearm. Individuals who owned guns reported firearm storage practices. Study-specific poststratification weights adjusted for survey nonresponse and undercoverage or overcoverage resulting from the study-specific sample design and for benchmark demographic distributions. Of 6721 adults invited to participate, 4030 completed the survey. Of these, 280 had a firearm in their homes and had a child aged 13 to 17 years who participated in the survey. The mean (SD) age of parents was 45.2 (7.2) years; of children, 15.0 (1.4) years. The sample included 159 male adolescents (weighted percentage, 60.8%; 95% CI, 53.8%-67.8%) and 129 male adults (weighted percentage, 48.3%; 95% CI, 40.9%-55.6%). In 33.9% (95% CI, 26.7%-41.2%) of households, an adolescent reported that they could access a loaded firearm in less than 5 minutes. In homes where all guns were locked, 23.7% (95% CI, 12.3%-35.1%) of adolescents reported that they could access a loaded firearm in less than 5 minutes. Overall, 70.4% (95% CI, 63.7%-77.1%) of parents reported that their child could not access a household firearm. In households where parents said their child could not access a firearm, 21.8% (95% CI 13.8%-29.7%) of their children indicated that they could access a firearm within 5 minutes and 14.9% (95% CI, 8.9%-20.9%) indicated that they could access a firearm in more than 5 minutes but less than 1 hour. In this study, many adolescents reported having ready access to loaded guns in their homes, even when all household firearms were locked. Many adolescents who reported having access to household firearms lived with parents who knew their children had access, but others lived with parents who did not know. These finding should inform prevention efforts aimed at reducing adolescent access to household firearms.
Highlights
The risk of suicide and unintentional firearm injury is several times higher for adolescents when they live in homes with firearms compared with children who lives in homes without them.[1,2,3,4,5] For children and young adults in households with firearms, firearm injury is less likely when all firearms are stored locked and unloaded, as opposed to unlocked, loaded, or both unlocked and loaded.[2]
70.4% of parents reported that their child could not access a household firearm
Many adolescents who reported having access to household firearms lived with parents who knew their children had access, but others lived with parents who did not know
Summary
The risk of suicide and unintentional firearm injury is several times higher for adolescents when they live in homes with firearms compared with children who lives in homes without them.[1,2,3,4,5] For children and young adults in households with firearms, firearm injury is less likely when all firearms are stored locked and unloaded, as opposed to unlocked, loaded, or both unlocked and loaded.[2]. While there is a large amount of literature on household firearm storage,[1,3,4,5,10,11] the most recent of which estimates that approximately 10 million children live in households with at least 1 unlocked or loaded firearm,[12] few studies have examined youth access to guns in their home.[12] For example, the only nationally representative survey to have examined adolescent access to firearms in their homes found that between 2001 and 2004, 41% of youths aged 13 to 18 years who lived in homes with guns responded affirmatively to, “Could you get [to a household gun] and shoot it if you wanted to?”13 Two more recent studies[14,15] among children presenting to emergency departments produced lower estimates. Approximately 1 in 5 parents who reported that their child (aged 5-14 years) had never handled a household gun were contradicted by their child’s report.[16] To our knowledge, no study before ours has examined the association between access and firearm storage
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