DENVER — Nearly half of Colorado adults live in a home with a gun, but more than one-third of them have never taken a firearms safety class.
Those are among the findings of a statewide survey conducted by the Colorado School of Public Health and the state’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The goal was to gather baseline data to help guide efforts to curb gun injuries and deaths, said Erin Kelly, the lead researcher.
“We know that this is something that is contentious to talk about, right?” Kelly said. “And we feel like this gives voice to a bunch of people that can kind of break through those barriers to some extent.”
Guns – and especially, the idea of new laws – stir powerful feelings in people.
“How do we walk across that line at this point in time and say, 'This is the way forward, these are things we can agree on?'” Kelly asked. “And really to address these injuries and deaths. I think we can just all agree that no one wants anyone to die as a result of holding onto or someone accessing that firearm.”
The survey’s full results are scheduled to be released Tuesday, but some general findings have been made public:
- 45% of Colorado adults live in a home where there is at least one gun.
- 37% of those who live in a home with a gun have never taken a firearms safety class.
- 35% of those who own guns don’t use safe-storage devices, such as trigger locks.
- 7% of gun owners carry a weapon with them daily.
Kelly, director of research and evaluation for the University of Colorado Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative, said some of the findings fit with other data that has been gathered nationally – but that in many cases there was little existing information.
“We're one of three states in the entire nation who've administered a survey like this on the state level,” Kelly said.
And while many of the findings were not surprising – some were.
For instance, Kelly said 17% of those who participated in the survey expressed concerns about gun injuries and violence in their communities. In a follow-up question about what changes they’ve made in their lives as a result, 13% of them said they had purchased a gun.
“I can't tell you if that's people that had already owned firearms, if they're new firearm owners, because this survey was just a point in time for us.” Kelly said. “But it's an interesting finding that they took that step as a result of their concern of these events happening in their communities.”
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