Many Parents of Young Children Leave at Least One Firearm Unlocked or Loaded, Survey Finds

A new survey of firearm-owning parents across the United States suggests that a substantial share of households with toddlers and preschoolers keep at least one gun in conditions that researchers classify as unsafe, even as most of those same parents say their primary reason for owning firearms is to protect their families. The findings, presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2026 National Conference & Exhibition in San Diego, offer a detailed portrait of who owns which kinds of firearms in families with young children and how those weapons are actually stored behind closed doors.

The study, titled Handgun and Long Gun Ownership and Storage in Families With Young Children, was conducted by Andrew Hashikawa, MD, MS, FAAP, a clinical professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the University of Michigan, together with senior author Alison L. Miller, PhD. The researchers questioned 843 U.S. parents who own firearms and who live with children between the ages of 1 and 5. Participants were recruited through a national online panel and were eligible if they were 18 or older, English-speaking, and living in a household with firearms. The survey was designed to be nationally representative of this population, and it was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The central measurement in the study was storage security, and the researchers defined it in deliberately strict terms. A household was classified as practicing secure storage only if every firearm in the home was stored both locked and unloaded. If even one weapon was stored loaded, unlocked, or both, the household was counted as not secure. This all-or-nothing definition matters, because in a home with multiple firearms, a single unlocked and loaded weapon can undo the safety benefit of every other gun kept properly locked away. It is a standard that reflects how young children actually encounter firearms: they need access to only one unsecured weapon for a tragedy to occur.

By that standard, the results were sobering. More than three-fourths of the parents surveyed, 77 percent, reported storing at least one firearm unlocked and loaded, or both unlocked and loaded. In other words, only a minority of these households met the researchers’ threshold for secure storage of all firearms. At the same time, the survey illuminated the composition of household arsenals. More than 94 percent of the parents reported owning a handgun. Roughly half, 51 percent, owned handguns only, while 5 percent owned only long guns such as rifles or shotguns. About 44 percent owned both a handgun and a long gun, and at least 49 percent owned at least one long gun. On average, families in the survey owned just under three firearms.

When the researchers broke storage practices down by the type of firearms owned, a clear pattern emerged. Parents who owned handguns only were more likely to store their household firearms securely than parents who owned both handguns and long guns. Secure storage was reported by 41.5 percent of handgun-only households compared with 30.7 percent of households that owned both types, a difference the authors report as statistically significant. Even so, the more striking finding may be what the two groups share: in both categories, a majority of families reported storing at least one household firearm unlocked, loaded, or both. No ownership pattern in the survey was associated with consistently safe storage across the board.

Motivation for ownership emerged as another defining feature of these households. Protection was by far the most commonly cited reason for owning firearms, reported by 77 percent of the parents surveyed. This figure sits at the heart of the study’s central tension. Families acquire weapons, most often handguns, because they want to shield their loved ones from harm, yet the act of keeping a firearm accessible enough to serve as a ready means of defense is precisely what undermines the locked-and-unloaded storage practices that research links to child safety. The authors argue that this paradox demands injury prevention messaging that directly addresses the needs and concerns of protection-motivated owners rather than talking past them.

The stakes of these household practices are framed by the broader epidemiology of firearm injury in childhood. The authors note that firearm injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the United States, and that rates of unintentional firearm injury are increasing among children younger than 6 years. Most of these unintentional injuries involve household firearms that were stored loaded and unlocked. Handguns account for the majority of unintentional firearm deaths among young children, and prior work suggests they may be stored less securely than other firearm types. Given that more than nine in ten of the surveyed families owned a handgun, the overlap between the weapon most likely to be involved in a young child’s death and the weapon most commonly present in these homes is a critical focus for prevention.

Young children are a particularly vulnerable population for these exposures for developmental reasons that clinicians and safety researchers have long emphasized. Children between the ages of 1 and 5 are curious, mobile, and increasingly adept at climbing, opening drawers, and reaching surfaces adults assume are out of range, yet they lack the impulse control and understanding of danger needed to handle a firearm safely if they find one. A loaded, unlocked handgun on a nightstand or in an accessible closet is, from a child’s perspective, an object to be picked up and explored. This is why pediatric guidance consistently stresses that keeping every firearm in the home locked and unloaded, with ammunition stored separately, is an important part of keeping children safe.

That message was put plainly by the study’s lead author. We found that many children under age 5 live in homes where firearms are not stored securely, said Hashikawa. Families often own firearms to protect their loved ones, but leaving them unlocked can put young children at risk. Keeping every firearm locked and unloaded is an important part of keeping children safe. The quote captures the framing the researchers hope will guide future interventions: rather than treating gun-owning families as adversaries, prevention efforts can start from the shared goal of protecting children and work backward toward the storage behaviors that achieve it.

The authors conclude that firearm type and reasons for ownership should be important considerations in the design of injury prevention efforts. Because handgun-only families stored their firearms more securely than families with mixed arsenals, and because handguns pose a particular risk to young children, they argue it is critical to emphasize secure storage of handguns specifically. They also propose tailoring safety messages to household firearm type and ownership motivations, and they suggest a novel engagement strategy: partnering with families who already store securely could be a way to reach other families with young children and encourage them to adopt the same practices. In a country where most young children’s firearm deaths unfold inside their own homes, the survey’s message is that the gap between the intention to protect and the practice of secure storage remains wide, and that closing it may depend on meeting protection-minded parents where they are.

Subject of Research: Firearm ownership patterns and secure storage practices in U.S. households with young children

Article Title: Firearm-owning parents of young children often store at least one firearm without secure storage

Article References: Firearm-owning parents of young children often store at least one firearm without secure storage. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: firearm storage, child safety, handguns, long guns, secure storage, pediatrics, injury prevention, parenting, American Academy of Pediatrics, University of Michigan, unintentional firearm injury, gun ownership