Live with a gun owner? Researchers say that makes you less safe

People buy handguns to protect themselves and their families. But guess what? Living with a handgun owner makes a person less safe.

That conclusion is derived from two research projects. One is a national survey of gun owners, including why they buy firearms. The other is a lengthy study of California homicides.

“Living with a handgun owner is associated with substantially elevated risk for dying by homicide,” concludes a Stanford University study of nearly 18 million Californian adults over a 12-year period. The report was released in April.

“It's important to recognize that women bear the brunt of the elevated risks … and that the fatal assaults they experienced often took the form of being shot by men they lived with,” reported Yifan Zhang, a co-author of the study.

“We focused on secondhand risks of guns — like secondhand smoke risks,” says David Studdert, the study's lead author, a health policy and law professor.

“Most of it involves domestic violence.”

The poll of U.S. gun owners was conducted by Beacon Research for a relatively new Los Angeles gun control advocacy group called 97Percent. The organization named itself after the percentage of Americans it says supports requiring universal background checks for gun purchases.

The September survey showed that by far the biggest reason given for buying a firearm was “to keep myself and my family safe.” It was listed by 58% of purchasers as “very important.” The next listed reason, cited by 24% as very important, was “I can't count on the authorities to keep me safe.”

“Despite widespread perceptions that a gun in the home provides security benefits, nearly all credible studies to date suggest that people who live in homes with guns are at higher — not lower — risk of homicide,” Studdert said in a statement accompanying the Stanford report.

“People who lived with a handgun owner were seven times as likely to be shot and killed by a spouse or intimate partner; 84% of those victims were women,” the study found.

And that makes sense: How agile and alert can a sleeping gun owner be even if he has a loaded weapon on the nightstand? What if he mistakes his wife for an intruder as she returns from the bathroom? That's a gun owner's nightmare.

“The gun industry feeds the impression that people die at home from strangers. It helps sales,” Studdert says.

People do get murdered at home by intruders, and no one is minimizing that. But the Stanford study and others indicate that the best way to protect a family from gun violence is to not possess a gun in the first place.

Another Studdert study two years ago found that “owning a handgun is associated with a dramatically elevated risk of suicide.” The report noted that handguns were used in threefourths of U.S. suicides in 2018.

And though other methods besides self-inflicted gunshots are used by those who attempt suicide, Studdert points out they are often survivable.

“If you reach for a bottle of tablets, you're probably going to get a second chance,” he says. “If you reach for a gun, it's nada.”

Gun owners and nonowners agree on some things, the Beacon Research poll found.

“I was struck at how widespread the support is among gun owners for some of these gun safety proposals that are on the table,” pollster Matthew Shelter says. “The idea there's a big gap between gun owners and nongun owners is not borne out by the research.”

But their agreement is on pretty mild stuff, at least by California standards.

For instance, 86% of gun owners favor requiring background checks “on all guns sold in the U.S.” Presumably that would mean private sales too, including in gun show parking lots. California already requires this.

Also, 67% support passing “red flag” laws that would allow families, teachers and co-workers to report suspicious behavior and have a person's guns temporarily seized. California has that too.

The gun lobbies and firearms industry still generally oppose these simple steps, however.

“We're not getting rid of guns in this country. And banning assault weapons is not probable,” says 97Percent Executive Director Mathew Littman. “What can we do to make a difference?”

His group has the answer: Encourage both sides to talk civilly and negotiate earnestly with each other. The timid politicians will follow.

And somehow convince people they don't need a home arsenal.