Perceived neighborhood safety and firearm secure storage: findings from the 2024 behavioral risk factor surveillance...

Secure firearm storage (i.e., keeping firearms locked and ammunition stored separately) is a means of reducing risks of suicide, unintentional injury, and homicide. While prior research has examined demographic and household factors associated with storage practices, less is known about how contextual factors, such as perceived neighborhood safety from crime, influence firearm storage behavior.

Data were from the 2024 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a nationally coordinated, state-based survey administered by state health departments with technical and methodological support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Analyses were restricted to respondents in firearm-owning households from ten states (n = 18,443). Firearm storage was categorized as: (1) unloaded [safest], (2) loaded and locked [intermediate risk], or (3) loaded and unlocked [unsafe storage practice]. Perceived neighborhood safety from crime was classified as extremely safe, safe, or unsafe (unsafe and extremely unsafe combined). Multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between perceived neighborhood safety and firearm storage.

Most respondents lived in households with firearms stored unloaded (63.2%), followed by loaded and locked (19.8%) and loaded and unlocked (17.0%). Compared with those who perceived their neighborhoods as extremely safe, respondents who perceived them as unsafe or extremely unsafe had a higher relative risk of living in a household with firearms loaded and unlocked (RRR = 1.773; 95% CI: 1.240-2.536).

Firearm injury prevention initiatives addressing storage practices should consider the role of community-level perceptions of safety through intervention-oriented and policy-relevant approaches, including via the integration of public health and violence prevention strategies.