Firearms are the leading cause of death in the United States for children aged 0-19 years, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting over 4,700 pediatric gun-related deaths in 2021.
Many of those deaths are unintentional.
A new study published by the CDC described how often guns are stored in different U.S. states. Up to 43% of households store loaded guns, which is not considered safe, while half of the households that store guns loaded with ammunition do not put them in locked containers, according to the study.
Loaded guns that are not locked can be easy for children to find and accidentally fire.
Households from eight states were surveyed for this high-quality report; including Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Oklahoma.
The percentage of households who had guns and stored guns securely varied widely between states.
