Firearm training is not associated with safe firearm storage practices

Using data from HICRC’s 2015 national firearm survey, we found that 30% of gun owners stored at least one gun loaded and unlocked.  Among gun owners who had received formal firearms training, 32% stored one or more guns loaded and unlocked, compared to 26% of  gun owners who had not received training.  Firearms were more likely to be stored loaded and unlocked for respondents who owned a gun for protection, who owned multiple firearms, who owned handguns, and who carried a loaded gun.  Controlling for those factors, firearms training was not associated with storing firearms loaded and unlocked.  Firearms training, as currently provided, is unlikely to reduce unsafe firearm storage.  The article, “Firearms training and storage practices among US gun owners: a nationally representative study, by John Berrigan, Deborah Azrael, David Hemenway and Matthew Miller appears in Injury Prevention 2019 epub ahead of print.