Secure storage and/or defensive accessibility: Associations between firearm storage practices and definitions of...

"Responsible gun ownership" is a complex topic, frequently invoked - we seek to unpack how firearm owners understand the term and how different models of firearms responsibility connect to home storage of firearms.

Using data from the nationally-representative 2024 National Firearms Survey (n = 4059 American firearm owners) we employed latent profile analysis based on ratings of the importance, for responsible gun ownership, of both storing guns unloaded and locked up and keeping guns accessible for defensive use. We then examined how actual storage practices differed across resulting profiles.

Much of the sample (70.8%) fell into two profiles that emphasized the importance of both secure storage and defensive accessibility for being a responsible gun owner. The remaining two profiles differentially-weighed accessibility and storage. However, even in the subgroup that emphasized storage over accessibility, only 53.1% locked up all their firearms. Demographics differed far less across profiles than did storage practices.

Most firearm owners reported that both having a gun accessible for defensive use and storing guns locked and unloaded were important for their definition of responsible gun ownership. These dual meanings are important in modeling connections between how firearm owners think and behave with their guns.