A Child's Self-Harm Risk Is Not Associated with Safer Home Firearm Storage

Over a decade ago, studies showed that adolescents at risk for self-harm were equally likely to have easy access to household firearms compared with adolescents not at risk. To determine if those results still reflect current parental firearm storage practices, researchers surveyed over 3900 U.S. adults, approximately 500 of whom owned guns and cared for at least one child aged <18 years in the home. Risk for self-harm was defined as a history of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, or other mental health problems.

Based on responses from gun-owning respondents with a child at home, a child's self-harm risk status was not significantly associated with the prevalence of having a firearm in the home (~40%) nor the frequency of…