Study: Child gun deaths could be reduced if firearms were properly stored

Gun fatalities among children could be reduced by a third if parents and gun owners properly stored their firearms, new research suggests.

News 12 Staff

May 15, 2019, 5:38 PM

Updated 2,038 days ago

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Gun fatalities among children could be reduced by a third if parents and gun owners properly stored their firearms, new research suggests.
According to a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, if adults simply locked up their guns, the number of children and teens who are killed by firearms each year could drop by up to a third.
The study says 13 million homes in the U.S. have both children, and guns.
And a majority of  guns aren't safely stored, locked up, and unloaded.
The study analyzed home gun ownership data from 2015.
Guns injured nearly 14,000 minors, and were involved in the deaths of another 2,800 across the U.S.
The study found nearly 800 of those deaths happened when guns were not locked up.
The lead author of the study says if more people properly locked their guns then there would be “substantial reductions in firearm suicide and unintentional fatalities among U.S. Youth."
Even if just 50 percent of people locked up their guns, 251 children's lives would have been saved.