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A cable lock is a simple, cheap, and effective way to prevent unauthorized access - many police departments give them away to the public, no questions asked
Secure Storage
Secure Storage
A gun won't just go off by itself. Why does secure storage matter?
A gun won't just go off by itself. Why does secure storage matter?
Preventing accidental discharge or unauthorized access (especially through theft or by children or other family members within the household) is the responsibility of each gun owner. A firearm can be a hunting tool, a personal- or home-defense weapon, or part of a sport or hobby, but in each case, owning and possessing them comes with serious responsibilities, and potential criminal consequences if not stored responsibly.
What does secure storage look like?
What does secure storage look like?
Secure storage means storing the firearm and ammunition separately. The firearm should be disabled or inaccessible except by the owner or owners of that firearm.
This is not a controversial topic, the NRA explicitly lists six common approaches to safely storing firearms.
There are many resources available if you can't afford a safe or lock: many local police departments will provide gun locks at no charge. Check out projectchildsafe.org for more resources.
Temporary Storage
Temporary Storage
Having a firearm accessible during a mental health, substance abuse, or domestic violence crisis is a worst-case scenario.
But what options does a gun-owner have when they recognize that they should've have a gun around them?
Giving the firearm, temporarily, to a trusted family member or friend who lives outside of your home. There are no legal restrictions on this, but it's important that the firearm be transported unloaded.
Reach out to your local gun shop. Tell them you need help storing the gun outside of your home temporarily. They will likely either store it for you or give you contact information for another location that can.
If the firearm can't be removed, unload any guns and remove the ammunition to another location. Even having to drive to another location to get it can be enough to prevent an impulsive decision.
Store the weapon in a hard-sided gun safe or lock box, or lock the firearm with an impenetrable trigger or cable lock and give the key to someone outside the household.
If you're a gun store owner, you can find more information about how to communicate the options to your customers and community here:
Safe Storage Reduces Suicide Risk
Safe Storage Reduces Suicide Risk
It is not intuitive that storing a firearm safely would do anything to prevent gun-owner suicide, but after talking to folks that have survived suicide attempts and looking at the statistics it's clear that there is a negative link between safe storage and the suicide risk (generally calculated to be 2-5 times higher for people who have a gun in the home). Why is that?
1.) Obviously, keeping guns out of the hands of kids and teens who may be at risk of suicide is an obvious benefit to safe storage. When a parent keeps their firearm loaded and accessible (even if it's "hidden") most teens surveyed say they could gain access to it in less than five minutes, or have already handled the firearm, even though parents believed they couldn't.
2.) By keeping a firearm locked and especially when ammunition is stored separately, the impulses that someone in a mental health crisis may have to take an action there's no coming back from can be overcome—survey studies have shown that many suicides are the results of an impulsive urge to end it all that quickly passes, often in a matter of minutes to an hour. If that momentary mindset can be prevented from taking a life, it's highly likely that that gun owner will go on to survive and won't die by suicide.
Sources:
https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/27/3/264
https://means-matter.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/youth-access/
https://www.npr.org/2008/07/08/92319314/in-suicide-prevention-its-method-not-madness
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