Women in dark on men's storage habits

Many couples with small children living at home not only disagree about how they have firearms stored, but about the number and types of guns they possess, shows a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Because of those firearm knowledge and reporting differences, which reflect a form of gender gap, gun safety counseling should be provided at hardware and home improvement stores, workplaces, shooting ranges, sporting events, and other locales men are likely to go, maintain researchers.

"That's because men are more likely to be gun owners, and they are the ones most often responsible for storing weapons," points out Tamera Coyne-Beasley, associate professor of pediatrics and internal medicine. "Offering this counseling only in clinical settings such as doctors' offices is likely to be less effective for improving firearm storage practices and creating safer homes since mothers are the ones usually taking their children to the doctor."

Among the findings were that 80% of males--compared with 72% of females--acknowledge that someone in their home owns a gun, Eighty-two percent of men, but only 17% of women, claim they own all the firearms, Eighty percent of men and women report that it is the men's sole responsibility to store the guns.

"There was only partial agreement between household partners on the number of firearms at home, the number of handguns and tong guns, and whose responsibility it was to store them," notes Coyne-Beasley. "Our research suggests that some men do not disclose to their partners that there are guns in the home. The finding that women appear to have less knowledge about household firearms indicates that their ability to participate in decision-making may be compromised. Moreover, if women believe there are no firearms in their homes, or that the firearms are stored safely, they have a decreased incentive to participate in decision-making because they believe their home is already safe."

COPYRIGHT 2006 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning