An estimated 32 million children in the United States live in homes with firearms, including nearly 7 million who have at least one gun in their household that is unlocked and loaded, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. The study, led by Dr. Matthew Miller, a public health researcher at Northeastern University, surveyed nearly 900 parents of children under 18 who own guns.

Thirty-five percent of those parents said they stored their firearms unloaded and locked up, while 21% reported having at least one firearm in the house that was unlocked and loaded. That 21% of gun-owning parents translates into about 7 million children in the overall U.S. population. A firearm stored unlocked and loaded can be fired immediately without unlocking.

Since 2020, firearms have been the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States. The majority of those deaths are homicides, and a large percentage are suicides.

"When children take their own lives purposefully, in a suicide, the gun almost always comes from their home. It's usually owned by a parent, and clearly, the children gain access to those guns," Miller said.

He pointed to the protective effect of secure storage. "When guns are locked up, it reduces the risk of dying by suicide, by firearm suicide in particular, by threefold. That doesn't eliminate the risk, but it mitigates it," Miller said.

Unsafe firearm storage increases the risk of unintentional injuries and of mass shootings. Parents of children under 13 are more likely to keep their firearms unloaded and locked away compared to parents of teenagers. The risk of suicide is higher for teenagers than for younger children, and school shooters are more likely to be teenagers than younger children. Modern safe storage technologies include smart guns, smart holsters, and biometric finger safes.

Anyone in crisis can text, chat or call 988 to speak to a counselor with the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.