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Handgun Safety
What Do Consumers Learn From Gun Dealers?
Sandra M. Sanguino, MD, MPH;
M. Denise Dowd, MD, MPH;
Sean A. McEnaney, MD;
Jane Knapp, MD;
Robert R. Tanz, MD
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2002;156:777-780.
ABSTRACT
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Objective To explore the type and quality of handgun safety information a typical
consumer would obtain from a licensed gun dealer.
Methods Semistructured, interactional on-site interviews were conducted with
licensed handgun dealers in 2 metropolitan areas. A variety of dealers (gun
shops, pawnshops, general merchandise stores, and sporting goods stores) were
visited. Investigators posed as customers interested in buying a handgun.
During the interview, investigators expressed concern that as the parent of
a 4-year-old child, they needed suggestions about keeping their child safe
with a gun in the home. Information collected included basic dealer demographics,
opinions on whether a 4-year-old child could pull a handgun trigger, handgun
safety advice and recommendations, and the type of safety devices and handgun
safety educational materials that were available in the store.
Results There were 96 visits made to gun dealers. The typical salesperson was
a man who appeared to be older than 40 years. Trigger locks were the most
common safety devices available. When asked what a consumer should know about
purchasing a handgun, 85% of salespeople did not mention safe storage. Only
9 (9%) offered advice that included all of the following: keeping the gun
securely locked, keeping the gun unloaded, and storing the gun separately
from the ammunition. One third answered "no" or "don't know" or "uncertain"
when asked if a 4-year-old could pull the trigger. The majority (92%) did
not have any handgun safe storage educational materials on site.
Conclusions Salespeople offered potential buyers little or no education about safe
storage of handguns. The information provided was often inconsistent with
the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
INTRODUCTION
IN 1999, 28874 people in the United States died as a result of a firearm
injury. Children younger than 20 years accounted for almost 12% of all firearm
deaths.1 Nonfatal firearm injuries in childhood
and adolescence are 4 to 5 times more common than firearm fatalities.2 The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends
that homes with children should not have guns, and if a family has a gun,
proper storage requires keeping it unloaded and locked up, with ammunition
locked up separately from the firearm.3
However, firearms are often stored improperly in households with children.
A 1994 study found that 33% of households kept at least 1 firearm in the home
or vehicle.4 Of those households with firearms,
21% kept at least 1 gun loaded and unlocked. In households with firearms and
children, 11.1% reported having at least 1 gun loaded and unlocked. A study
using 1994 National Health Interview Survey data found that 35% of homes with
children younger than 18 years (representing more than 22 million children
in more than 11 million homes) reported having at least 1 firearm.5 Among homes with children and firearms, 43% had at
least 1 unlocked firearm. Overall, 9% kept firearms unlocked and loaded, and
4% kept them unlocked, unloaded, and stored with ammunition. A total of 1.4
million homes with 2.6 million children reported storing firearms in a manner
that made them potentially accessible to children.
When children have access to firearms, they are strong enough to fire
them. Naureckas et al6 demonstrated that 25%
of 3- to 4-year-old children had the ability to pull a trigger that required
a pull strength of at least 10 pounds. Fifty-nine of 64 handguns commercially
available at that time required a trigger-pull strength of 10 pounds or less.
Currently, 17 states have enacted child-access prevention (CAP) laws
that make gun owners criminally liable if someone is injured because a child
gains unsupervised access to a gun. These laws are intended to prevent unintentional
injury among children younger than 15 years by limiting their access to guns.7 There are also several health-based curricula that
incorporate safe storage messages.8-9
The goal of this study was to identify the type and extent of safety
information available to individuals when they purchase a handgun. We also
explored the degree to which the information given was consistent with the
AAP recommendations.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
This study used cross-sectional, semistructured, interactive interviews
to assess the safety information provided by gun dealers. Licensed gun dealers
in the greater Chicago, Ill, and Kansas City, Mo, metropolitan areas were
included in the study. Individual stores were identified using phone book
listings for firearm sales. Calls were placed to stores listed in the phone
book to ask if they sold handguns. Stores were included in the study if they
sold handguns. Sellers not included were hobbyists and private gun dealers
not doing store-based business with the public. Approval for the study was
obtained from the institutional review boards of Children's Memorial Hospital,
Chicago, and the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
Three interviewers (S.M.S., S.A.M., and a research assistant), 2 women
and 1 man, visited handgun sellers in 1997. Each interviewer posed as a potential
first-time handgun purchaser. The interviewer expressed interest in buying
a handgun for the purpose of protecting his or her family and claimed to have
no knowledge of handguns and no previous ownership. During the introduction,
the statement was made that the interviewer was the parent of a 4-year-old
child. Visits were made between July 1, 1997, and October 31, 1997. Salespeople
were unaware that they were part of a study. No store or individual salesperson
identifiers were collected.
Data collected included type of store (gun/hunting shop, sports shop,
general merchandise/department store, or pawnshop), sex of the salesperson,
and approximate age of the salesperson by observation (<25 years, 25-40
years, 41-60 years, or older than 60 years). The safety devices available
for sale in the store were identified by direct observation and inquiry. Included
were trigger locks, lockboxes, and gun safes. Several open-ended questions
were asked at each visit including, "What do I need to know about purchasing
a handgun?" and "How should I store a handgun?" Responses to the storage question
were considered to be consistent with AAP recommendations if all 3 elements
of safe gun storage were mentioned: firearm unloaded, ammunition kept separate
from the gun, and the gun locked with an appropriate device (lockbox or trigger
lock). If the respondent answered with at least 1 element of safe storage
but not all 3, the answer was considered partially consistent. The answer
was considered inconsistent when the advice given contained none of the safe
storage elements. Additional questions asked were "Do you think my child could
pull the trigger?"; "Where can I get more information about safety?"; and
"Do you have any literature in the store on safety?" Each interviewer asked
all questions at each visit, although the order of asking and the exact wording
used may have varied among interviewers. Responses were recorded on a standardized
data collection form immediately after the interviewer left the store.
RESULTS
A total of 96 visits to stores licensed to sell guns were completed.
The majority of stores (92%) were located in suburban locations, 51% were
gun/hunting shops, and 21% were sporting goods stores. Most frequently, the
salesperson was male (85%) and was judged to be 41 to 60 years of age (49%). Table 1 summarizes some of the characteristics
of the stores and salespeople.
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Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Gun-Selling Sites
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Table 2 summarizes the safety
devices available in the store. Trigger locks were sold in 72% of shops and
were on display and visible in 53 (56%). During 34% of visits, the gun seller
reported having a gun lockbox in the store; lockboxes were on display in 25
stores (27%). In stores where safety devices were not on display, 15 salespeople
(16%) revealed that trigger locks were available, and 6 (7%) indicated that
lockboxes were available. When asked the question "What do I need to know
about purchasing a handgun?" 80% of salespeople recommended that the prospective
consumer receive personal instruction or training in firearm handling or use.
Only 15% of salespeople volunteered that knowledge of safe storage is important.
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Table 2. Handgun Safety Devices Available in the Store
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The most commonly recommended source for more information about handgun
safety was a training course (78%). The National Rifle Association was mentioned
as a source of information by 15% of sellers, and the police were mentioned
by 7%. No seller indicated that information about handgun safety could be
obtained from a physician or other health care provider. Safety literature
was available in 8% of stores.
The question "How should I store my handgun?" was answered in a manner
consistent with the AAP recommendations only 9 times (9%). Partially consistent
answers were given 62 times (66%), and inconsistent answers were given by
21 salespeople (22%). Two respondents (2%) did not provide storage recommendations.
The ability of a 4-year-old child to pull the trigger of a handgun was
recognized by 66% of respondents. The remainder did not know that young children
were strong enough to pull the trigger of many handguns (14%) or said they
did not know or they were uncertain (22%).
COMMENT
The present study attempted to identify the type and extent of handgun
safety information provided to a potential purchaser. We have demonstrated
that potential purchasers of handguns were given little or no information
about the safe storage of guns from the gun sellers we visited. This is true
even when the "buyers" asked about safety measures.
Firearm-related deaths and injuries continue to be a significant problem
for US children. Despite the evidence suggesting that keeping a gun in the
home increases the mortality risk of household members,10
many people continue to believe that keeping a gun in the home makes them
more safe.11 Parents also may have inappropriate
expectations of their children's behaviors around guns. In a survey of 400
parents in metropolitan Atlanta, Ga, 74% of gun-owning parents believed that
their 4- to 12-year-old child could tell the difference between a toy gun
and a real gun, and 23% stated that their child could be trusted with a real
gun.12 A subsequent study of boys' behavior
when they discover a handgun in a safe environment found that 76% handled
the gun and 48% pulled the trigger.13 In that
study, more than 90% of boys who pulled the trigger or handled the gun reported
that they had previously received some sort of gun safety instruction.
Adults have the responsibility to keep children safe. Given that millions
of Americans own guns and will continue to do so, what can be done to protect
children? One strategy has been to provide firearm injury prevention education
in the office setting. Professional medical organizations such as the AAP
have advocated for such counseling by primary care pediatricians.9 Unfortunately, the limited data thus far on the effectiveness
of this intervention have been disappointing.14
Another strategy to reduce the risk of childhood firearm death has been
the enactment of CAP laws. There are currently 17 states with CAP laws requiring
that gun owners prevent minors from gaining access to loaded firearms. The
use of CAP laws presupposes that gun buyers know how to safely store handguns
and gun sellers can help consumers to do so. Prior to this study, we had hoped
that gun sellers actually did provide information on safe storage. However,
we have demonstrated that little or no information about the safe storage
of handguns was provided by the gun sellers we visited.
There are several limitations to this study. Because we conducted semistructured
interviews, there may have been inconsistencies from visit to visit and among
the 3 interviewers. Illinois requires consumers to have a firearm owner identification
card to purchase a gun, but the interviewer in Illinois did not have a card.
This may have prevented the gun sellers from being as forthcoming with information
because the seller realized that the "buyer" was not going to purchase a handgun
at that time. There may also be variation by geographic area. At the time
this study was conducted, neither of the states involved in this study had
a CAP law in place. It may be that gun dealers in states with CAP laws provide
more safety information than those in states without CAP laws. In addition,
the amount of information collected was limited because of the nature of the
interaction.
Nevertheless, our data indicate that handgun dealers fail to provide
consumers with the proper safety information. They will need a significant
amount of training if they are expected to provide safety information to prospective
consumers. It seems unlikely that gun sellers would readily provide information
that might discourage handgun purchase. However, it also seems evident that
the point of sale represents an opportunity for the distribution of safety
information. Potential partnerships between handgun safety advocacy groups
and handgun dealers could be explored so appropriate safety information is
provided at the point of handgun purchase. Although there may be an opportunity
to provide handgun safety information at the time of purchase, the willingness
of handgun sellers to provide it remains to be seen.
| What This Study Adds
Firearm-related deaths and injuries continue to be a significant problem
for US children. It is uncertain what type of safety information is provided
to handgun buyers at the point of purchase. This study demonstrates that salespeople
offered potential buyers little or no information about safe storage of handguns.
When safety information was provided, it was often inconsistent with the recommendations
of the AAP. Handgun sellers are poor sources of safety information for consumers.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Accepted for publication April 25, 2002.
This study was presented in part at the annual meeting of the Pediatric
Academic Societies, New Orleans, La, May 3, 1998.
We thank Jennifer Spradley Jones, MSW, for her assistance with data
collection.
Corresponding author and reprints: Sandra M. Sanguino, MD, MPH, Division
of General Academic Pediatrics, Children's Memorial Hospital, 2300 Children's
Plaza, Box 16, Chicago, IL 60614 (e-mail: ssanguino{at}northwestern.edu).
From the Department of Pediatrics, Division of General Academic Pediatrics,
Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Ill (Drs Sanguino and Tanz); and the
Department of Pediatrics (Dr McEnaney), and the Division of Emergency Medicine
(Drs Dowd and Knapp), Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Mo.
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