Rutgers researchers just released some surprising new insight on gun owners in New Jersey finding that many keep at least one firearm stored unlocked and loaded in their home that's despite evidence showing Secure Storage of a gun reduces the risk of suicide and unintentional shootings and increased gun violence prevention efforts that emphasize safe storage as a way to prevent injury and death for more I'm joined by the lead author on the study Mike Anestis, he's the executive director dor at New Jersey gun violence research center Mike thanks for joining me I really want to get into this report because it seems like we've talked for so long about the benefits of storing a firearm and yet despite that not everyone sees the value in it yeah and that's really the Crux of our new study that came out is just that the folks who were storing their firearms sort of is dangerously as possible loaded unlocked they are seen less value in any sort of secure store storage whether that's to prevent suicide or unintentional shootings or even just theft of the firearm and if folks aren't seeing any value in the behavior it sort of makes sense that they're not going to do it why is that though I mean given all of the research that's out there so I think it's a few things but the biggest reason folks own a firearm is for protection at home and so for a lot of folks the message they've received over and over again is you need to have a firearm on the ready because what if someone breaks into your home in the middle of the night you want to get to it quickly and I think people have come to a place where they overestimate How likely that horrible tragedy would be and they underestimate How likely it is that someone in your own home is going to get hurt intentionally or not with that firearm and so they aren't really just seeing the actual costs and benefits as they are yeah I mean it sounds like a a standard argument if I have this as a means of protection for my family I need to have quick access to it not unloaded in a in a storage box in a safe somewhere but how often are these Firearms getting into the wrong hands in homes and I'm thinking about children in particular far more often than any of us really want to know unfortunately these tragedies unfold daily over and over again and that's not to to say that a firearm has never been used successfully to defend a family that's not the point it's just that the outcomes that we are afraid of aren't happening as often as the outcomes that I'm talking about particularly suicide and so I think it's just that you know we all accept a certain level of risk in our lives but a lot of folks are using sort of faulty information to estimate how much risk is involved in keeping my firearm loaded on my bedside table and are these I'll say casual firearm owners who were researched in the study or did it run the gamut to those who were in law enforcement or those who use Firearms uh for you know a myriad reasons yeah runs the gamut great question so this was a representative sample of folks living in nine states across the United States including New Jersey and so some folks were law enforcement some folks were military or veteran and some folks had no affiliation with any of those types of organizations they're just a member of your community who happens to own a firearm and you're seeing these patterns across the board amongst the folks who are making these sort of riskier decisions about how am I going to Stage my firearm at home so what do you think the take-home needs to be to get more people more firearm owners to start storing these weapons in a in a safe way I think there's a few things one is that we need to better understand what are the preferred storage devices firearm owners are open to using and make sure there sort of available and affordable the biggest thing though is working on sort of countering the the messaging that's been in place from in large part firearm manufacturers that the idea is that the world is dangerous and fearful and you better protect yourself that message has been out there for decades and has really resonated with folks we need to do a better job of equipping trusted voices with the ideas that hey safe storage Secure Storage can help prevent a lot of other tragedies and you really need to make your decisions based on the full understanding of the facts Mike Anestis is the exact Ive director of New Jersey's gun violence research center Mike thanks for sharing this study with us thank you