Number of firearms stored unlocked performed best in estimating teen perceived access to firearms, but sensitivity was low
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, June 16, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Parent-reported firearm storage seems to be a poor estimator of teen perceived firearm access, according to a study published online June 10 in JAMA Network Open.
Katherine G. Hastings, M.P.H., from the University of British Columbia in Canada, and colleagues examined the associations between parent-reported household firearm storage behaviors and teen perceived access to firearms in a cross-sectional study using national survey data of U.S. firearm-owning parents and their teens aged 14 to 18 years. A total of 487 parent-teen dyad respondents were included in the analyses.
The researchers found that all four unsecured firearm storage behaviors (unlocked; loaded; unlocked and loaded; and unlocked or loaded) were associated with greater teen perceived firearm access (odds ratios, 1.27 to 1.44); after restricting to those who stored at least one firearm unsecured, the associations disappeared. The best performance for estimating teen perceived access to firearms in U.S. households was seen for the number of firearms stored unlocked (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 65.7), regardless of teen gender, parental education, r urbanicity. Universally low sensitivity was seen for this measure (range, 42 to 64 percent). In households where all firearms were stored locked and unloaded, 36.3 percent of teens reported access to a firearm.
“Strictly focusing safety efforts on secure firearm storage may be insufficient to keep teens from accessing firearms unsupervised by adults or parents,” the authors write.
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