How social support impacts firearm carrying and secure storage
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
Rutgers University
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 a 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,” 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.
ABOUT RUTGERS HEALTH
As New Jersey’s academic health center, Rutgers Health takes the integrated approach of educating students, providing specialized and compassionate clinical care for its communities, and conducting innovative research, with the goal of life-changing health for all. Rutgers Health is a “bench-to-bedside” institution, bringing discoveries in the lab directly to patients across the state and around the world. It includes eight schools, a behavioral health network, and 11 centers and institutes in Newark and New Brunswick.
Journal
Injury Prevention
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Salience of social support for firearm carrying and storage in the USA
Article Publication Date
4-Nov-2025
Experts chart roadmap to reduce firearm harms, La Vigne part of group offering solutions
Rutgers University Newark School of Criminal Justice
More than 40 experts from across sectors in medicine, public health, law, industry, and community violence intervention have produced a blueprint for substantially reducing firearms harms.
Nancy La Vigne, Dean of the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice and an expert on criminal justice reform, policy data, and research, was part of the JAMA Summit convened by JAMA and JAMA Network. Their report presents suggestions to dramatically reduce firearm violence by 2040 through practical solutions grounded in evidence and accountability, recognizing constitutional protections while ensuring public safety.
The report synthesizes evidence on policies and interventions that demonstrably reduce firearm violence and deaths. It identifies actions to drive progress in the coming years, including investing in community-based initiatives; advancing technologies while strengthening oversight for firearms as consumer products; and shifting the public’s and policymakers’ understanding of the preventability of firearm harms, reframing gun violence as a public health, social, and environmental issue. The experts also recommend supporting coordinated action at the federal, state, and local levels informed by scientific insight and advocacy, and expanding research on the effectiveness, scaling, and equity of interventions.
“Over 800,000 individuals in the United States have died from injuries related to firearms and more than two million others have been injured,” said La Vigne. “These are the result of homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings, which reverberate through communities nationwide and result in psychological, economic, and social consequences that far exceed physical injury.”
Journal
JAMA
Article Title
Toward a Safer World by 2040The JAMA Summit Report on Reducing Firearm Violence and Harms
Article Publication Date
13-Nov-2025
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