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Are Your Guns Locked Up? A New Campaign Highlights Why Family Fire Is a Big Concern

Most of the conversation around gun violence these days involves mass shootings, such as Sandy Hook and Marjory Stoneman Douglas. But there's an often overlooked aspect to gun violence: Every day, eight kids are injured or killed in incidents at home, when an improperly stored gun is fired.

And that has led to the new campaign by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, called "Family Fire," which encourages families to secure guns in the home to prevent tragedy. "We have a long history working to prevent gun violence in all forms," says Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Center. "This is a uniquely American problem and it is firmly in our hands to solve by simple steps every family can take today to ensure their guns and ammunition are stored safely."

The campaign, which includes an unsettling public service announcement, draws attention to "Family Fire," which they define as a shooting involving an improperly stored gun. "Family Fire is the same as the military's 'Friendly Fire,'" except it happens in homes where kids are too frequently finding loaded and unlocked guns, and using them without understanding the death and injury that can occur," Brown says. The Brady Center estimates that 4.6 million children live in homes where loaded guns are accessible to children.

The campaign was built to help ensure that guns are made inaccessible to children. "Keeping guns locked up with the ammunition stored separately is the best way to ensure your child's safety in a home with a firearm," Brown says. "Too often young children find guns and don't realize that they are weapons used to kill, and not toys. Many parents often mistakenly believe that kids don't know where their guns are stored—but they do. Teenagers and kids can feel overwhelmed and upset at various times in their lives. Don't let that gun bought for self-protection be used by a toddler or teenager to harm others or harm themselves."

And the Brady Campaign encourages parents to ask questions about their friends' gun practices, before they send their kids over for a playdate. "We send our kids every day to friends' homes who may have firearms," Brown says. "We need a national conversation about Family Fire, just like we talk about allergens, or pets, or pools and safety around them. Family Fire gives a name to an issue that allows all Americans to talk about safe storage and a badge of honor for every gun owner in America that stores their firearms safely."

Ready to start the conversation—or to find out more about how to make sure that your guns are safely stored? You can check out more information at the End Family Fire site.