Stop 2

The Risks Of Guns in the Home

  • Currently, an estimated 39% of households have a gun; 24% have a handgun.[1]

  • There are approximately 192 million privately owned firearms in the U.S. — including 65 million handguns.[2]

  • Approximately 29% of adults personally own a firearm, and 18% personally own a handgun.[3]

  • In 1994, 35% of the homes with children younger than 18 reported having at least 1 firearm; 43% of those had at least 1 unlocked firearm.[4]

  • A gun kept in the home is 22 times more likely to be used in an unintentional shooting (4 times), a criminal assault or homicide (7 times), or an attempted or completed suicide (11 times) than to be used to injure or kill in self-defense.[5]

  • When someone is home, a gun is used for protection in fewer than two percent of home invasion crimes.[6]

  • The risk of homicide in the home is three times greater in households with guns.[7]

  • The risk of suicide is five times greater in households with guns.[8]

  • From 1987-1990, victims used firearms to protect themselves in fewer than one percent of all violent offenses.[9]

  • In 1998, there were only 134 justifiable handgun homicides by a private citizen compared with a total of 6,498 handgun murders in the United States.[10]

  • A 1994 national survey found that 71 percent of the U.S. population feels less safe when others in the community acquire firearms.[11]

  • From 1990-1998, two-thirds of spouse and ex-spouse murder victims were killed by guns.[12]

Updated 1/16/01

Notes:

  1. National Opinion Research Center, The University of Chicago, 1997-1998 National Gun Policy Survey, September 1998.
  2. Police Foundation ©1996, Guns in America: Results of a comprehensive national survey on firearms ownership and use. p.13.
  3. National Opinion Research Center, The University of Chicago, 1997-1998 National Gun Policy Survey, September 1998.
  4. Schuster MA. "Firearm Storage Patterns in US homes with Children." American Journal of Public Health. 2000;90(4):588-94.
  5. Kellermann AL. "Injuries and Deaths Due to Firearms in the Home." J, Trauma 1998; 45(2):263-67.
  6. Kellermann AL. "Weapon Involvement in Home Invasion Crimes." JAMA 1995;273(22):1759-62.
  7. Kellermann, AL, Rivara, FP, Rushforth NB, et al. Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home. N Engl J Med. 1993; 329: 1084-1091.
  8. Kellermann, AL Rivara FP, Somes G, et al. Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership. N Engl J Med. 1992; 327: 467-472.
  9. McDowall D. "The incidence of defensive firearm use by US crime victims, 1987 through 1990." American Journal of Public Health, 1994; 84(12):1982-84.
  10. FBI Uniform Crime Report, 2000; table 2.13, p.21 and table 2.17, p.23.
  11. Hemenway D, "Firearms and Community Feelings of Safety." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 1995;86(1):121-132.
  12. "Homicide Trends in the United States." Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998.