Safe storage of handguns. What do the police recommend?
D. M. Denno, D. C. Grossman, J. Britt and A. B. Bergman
Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the specific suggestions that local police
departments in the United States give to parents who ask for advice about
methods to safely store handguns. METHODS: A cross-sectional,
semistructured telephone survey was administered to a sample of 102 police
departments in the United States in cities with populations of 10,000 or
more, selected within blocks of cities of similar population size. An
investigator, posing as a parent of 3-year-old and 10-year-old children,
called departments seeking specific advice on how to safely store a handgun
acquired for protection. RESULTS: Usable responses were generated for 93
(91%) of the departments sampled. Only 3 departments (3.2%) refused to give
advice over the telephone. The most commonly suggested storage methods were
trigger locks (55 departments [59%]), portable lockboxes for handguns (48
[52%]), and the separation of guns from ammunition (30 [32%]). Seven
percent of departments suggested removing the gun from the household. Over
half of those suggesting trigger locks and lockboxes considered these
devices safe (35 [64%] for trigger locks and 27 [56%] for lockboxes) and
yet rapidly accessible to an adult (36 [65%] for trigger locks and 36 [75%]
for lockboxes). Responding police officers most commonly reported using the
following storage methods at home: no storage method (31 [38%]), portable
lockboxes (23 [28%]), out-of-reach location (11 [13%]), separation of gun
and ammunition (10 [12%]), and trigger locks (5 [6%]). CONCLUSIONS: Trigger
locks are frequently recommended but infrequently used by police themselves
at home. Portable lockboxes are frequently recommended as well as used by
police.
