Home Security And Guns – A Contradiction?

According to www.gallup.com, forty-two percent of Americans report having a gun in their home.  There are estimated to be more than 310 million firearms, approximately 90 per 100 people.  USA Today conducted a poll asking why people purchase firearms. According to USA Today, “48% said they own them for protection, while 32% said they own a firearm mainly for hunting purposes.”  While many of these firearms were bought with home security in mind, does the research indicate that this is the best choice?
Unfortunately you and your family are likely to be at greater risk of a shooting, by a family member rather than during a home invasion.  Smartgunlaws.org indicates that a national study of those who died from accidental shootings showed that victims were more than three times more likely to have had a gun in their home as those in the control group.  The danger of unintentional shootings is especially acute for homes with children as 89% of unintentional shooting deaths of children occur in the home when their parents are away.
Having firearms in the home also plays a role in an individual’s risk of suicide and domestic violence. One study found that homes in which a suicide had occurred were 4.8 times more likely to contain a firearm than similarly situated neighborhood homes that had not experienced a suicide.  Women in the United States are murdered by intimate or former partners approximately nine times more often than they are murdered by strangers.  Domestic violence incidents involving firearms are twelve times more likely to result in a death compared to non-firearm abuse incidents, according to www.smartgunlaws.org.
Arthur Kellerman, founder of Emory University’s Department of Emergency Medicine, who spent years as an emergency room doctor, remarked, “Believe me when I tell you this. The victims are not the bad guys. It’s usually someone that the owner of the gun cares about,” he said. “My research showed that a gun owner was 43 times more likely to shoot and kill a family member than that he’d shoot and kill anybody else.”  (www.safety.com).

Guns – Personal and Home Security

As mentioned, almost half of gun owners are motivated to have a firearm for protection.  The belief being that having a gun provides a fighting chance in the event that a burglar or invader enters the home.  How often does this occur?  The frequency of defensive use of a firearm is estimated to range from 55,000 to two million per year.  It is also estimated that a house is broken into every 14.6 seconds in the US with an average lost of more than $2,000 in possessions.
Surveys of home burglars indicate that the majority (75%) avoid targeting a home when the homeowners are present.  Given the high likelihood that the homeowner also owns a firearm, it just makes sense given they don’t like finding themselves staring down the barrel of a gun.  The threat of being shot is sufficient motivation to dissuade burglars from targeting certain homes.

Guns – Living Life More Dangerously

Guns are inert machines incapable of causing harm on their own.  Unfortunately, guns do not discriminate between home invaders and innocent bystanders.  A gun owner is more likely to shoot someone by accident (or be shot) than shooting a home invader. This is regardless of the type of firearm owned, how it is stored it, or the number of firearms in the household.
Then there are the family children and their safety.  Despite the efforts of parents and their precautions to keep firearms away from their children, children often (22%) handle the firearms without their parents´ knowledge, often with fatal consequences (72% of gun related deaths are due to the family firearm).  (http://www.dshs.wa.gov).

Guns – What To Do?

For those homeowners who have firearms because of the need for personal and home protection, NEXUS Home Security recommends the installation of a home security system, since this will reduce the need to fire their weapon at all.  According to a survey of convicted burglars by the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association, 9 out of 10 said they would avoid homes with an alarm system installed.  So, if you own a firearm for protection purposes, consider complementing it with a quality home alarm system.  It is a first line of defense against home invasions that can drastically reduce the likelihood of a tragedy.  Remember, it is better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.


For more information, please visit:  http://www.NexusHomeSecurity24.com/