Gun Safety Information & Resources

Firearm-Related Injuries and Deaths: A Problem We Must Solve Together

Firearm-related injuries and deaths are a public health crisis that communities across the nation face every day:

• Since 2018, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, there have been 1,546 school shootings, capturing the full scope of gun violence on school grounds.
• Approximately three-quarters of perpetrators in school-based active shooter situations acquired their firearm from the home of a parent or close relative. This illustrates the close connection between your role as families, caregivers, and guardians and the role of Arlington Public Schools in keeping students safe while on school grounds.
• However, this issue goes beyond school-based active shooter situations and includes a variety of firearm injury types, including interpersonal violence, suicide, and unintentional fatal and nonfatal firearm injuries.
• More than 4 million children live in a household with at least one unlocked and loaded firearm. Studies have found that households with both locked firearms and locked ammunition have significantly lower risks of self-inflicted firearm injuries and even lower risks of unintentional firearm injuries among children and teens compared to households that did not safely store firearms.
• Unfortunately, there have been multiple incidents when students brought a pellet gun, air-soft gun, BB gun, or toy that resembles a firearm to school. Possessing or bringing any object that resembles a firearm is a direct violation of the student code of conduct and does result in immediate disciplinary actions and potential for criminal charges. Moreover, it does pose a substantial risk for all students and staff at the school.

Safe Firearm Storage: Actions to Take to Keep Our Communities Safe

Safe firearm storage is one of many preventative actions that you can take to keep our school community and school buildings and grounds safe. When firearms are stored safely, it can help prevent them from getting into the hands of children and teens, who may use them to, intentionally or unintentionally, harm themselves or others. Safe storage can go a long way in preventing lives from being lost or permanently altered. Everyone, both firearm owners and non-owners, has a role to play in building awareness of safe, responsible firearm storage. If you have firearms in your home or if your child spends time in a space where firearms are present, there are important steps that can be taken to keep firearms secured and out of reach of unintended users.

Below are simple, highly effective practices that can help to reduce firearm-related incidents in our community and help protect our kids. In addition to these practices, it is important to engage children and adolescents in conversations about the dangers associated with using firearms and what to do and not do if they access a firearm, to prevent fatal or non-fatal injuries.

• Safely Store Firearms: Store firearms—always unloaded—in a tamper-proof locked cabinet, box, safe, firearm vault, or storage case that children or other unauthorized adults cannot access.
• Safely Store Ammunition: Store ammunition in a separate, tamper-proof locked cabinet, safe, firearm vault, or storage case that children or other unauthorized adults cannot access.
• Secure Firearms: Use trigger locks or cable locks to prevent a firearm from firing. (More information can be found on the Safe Firearm Storage Fact Sheet, developed by the U.S. Department of Justice.)
  • Trigger locks use a mechanism that clamps down around the trigger or trigger housing to prevent it from being pressed (Note: trigger locks should not be installed on loaded firearms).
  • In a cable lock, a cable is threaded through the barrel or the action of a firearm to prevent it from firing.
  • Trigger and cable locks are available through the Arlington County Department of Human Services Lock and Talk Program.

Read more on our Gun Safety page.

Helpful Resources

More information about safe firearm storage and practices can be found below. Please feel free to read and share with family, friends, and neighbors.

This list below is included for the reader’s convenience and contains examples of potentially useful products and resources. Inclusion of such information does not constitute an endorsement by the Department or the Federal government, nor a preference/support for these examples over others. The Department does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any outside information.

• Safe Firearm Storage Fact Sheet, U.S. Department of Justice
• Preventing Mass Attacks in Our Communities Webinar, U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center
• Firearms Safety, Arlington County Virginia
• Lock and Talk, Arlington County Virginia
• Gun Safety, Virginia Department of Education

References

Riedman, D. (2023). K-12 School Shooting Database. https://k12ssdb.org/all-shootings

National Threat Assessment Center. (2019). Protecting America’s Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence. U.S. Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security. http://bit.ly/3SfmSgw

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention. (September 19, 2023). Fast Facts: Firearm Violence and Injury Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/firearms/fastfact.html

Miller, M., & Azrael, D. (2022). Firearm Storage in U.S. Households With Children: Findings From the 2021 National Firearm Survey, JAMA Network Open, 5(2): e2148823.

Grossman, D.C., Mueller, B.A., Riedy, C., Dowd, M.D., Villaveces, A., Prodzinski, J., Nakagawara, J., Howard, J., Thiersch, N., & Harruff, R. (2005). Gun Storage Practices and Risk of Youth Suicide and Unintentional Firearm Injuries. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/200330.