Risky behaviors such as frequent public carrying are reduced and safe storage increases when people have greater support from family and friends, Rutgers Health researchers find
Support from family, friends and partners can influence a person's behaviors around firearms, with more support corresponding to a reduction in unsafe behaviors, according to Rutgers Health researchers.
Their study, published in Injury Prevention, examined how connections with others shape the ways that a person interacts with firearms.
The researchers utilized data from a 2024 nationally representative survey of more than 8,000 adults, with 2,451 of the respondents reporting they had access to a firearm. The researchers measured people's perception of social support from their loved ones with the widely used Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, a set of 12 questions widely used by researchers to measure an individual's perception of support. Using this data, they analyzed the connections between social support and firearm behaviors, such as frequent carrying and safe storage behaviors like locked storage and storing firearms separate from ammunition.
Social connections can act as a buffer against risky firearm behaviors, and strong relationships may make people feel safer without needing to rely on a gun.
Daniel Semenza
Director of Research, New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center
"Social connections can act as a buffer against risky firearm behaviors, and strong relationships may make people feel safer without needing to rely on a gun," said Daniel Semenza, director of research at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and Rutgers University-Camden. "People who feel more supported by their partners, families or friends are less likely to carry firearms frequently or report storing them unsafely."
Social support is known to have an impact on physical and mental health, but there has been no research on the impact of social support for firearm behaviors, according to Semenza. The researchers observed that individuals with increased social support had 8% lower odds of frequently carrying a firearm and 11% lower odds of storing firearms unlocked and loaded. Additionally, better social support was associated with 14% higher odds of storing firearms locked and 8% higher odds of storing them separately from ammunition.
"Public health efforts to prevent firearm injuries could benefit from building and leveraging social support networks. When people feel more connected to one another, they feel safer," said Semenza, the lead author of the study.
Study co-authors include researchers and faculty from the Department of Urban-Global Public Health at Rutgers University, the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice at Rutgers, Department of Criminal Justice at The University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Foundation for Louisiana.
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