A Moment of Crisis Can Happen to Anyone
The new "Safe Stories" campaign stresses the importance of protecting those inside the home from gun violence
By: Morgan Spry
Many Americans have long believed the false narrative that having a gun inside the home makes you safer. This myth has had impressive staying power, and is strongest among firearm owners, with 75% reporting that their home is safer when it contains a firearm.
Yet substantial research shows the opposite is true: a gun in the home actually increases your risk of being shot, putting loved ones inside of the home at increased risk of firearm injury or suicide.
We know that quick and easy access to firearms decreases the time for rational thinking in a moment of crisis and increases the chance of injury. Yet 65% of gun owners have at least one unlocked firearm, allowing children and others access to them, too often with deadly results.
End Family Fire is a partnership between Brady and the Ad Council. Its mission is to encourage safe gun storage in the home and promote responsible gun ownership overall.
Its newest campaign, Safe Stories, is working to change the false narrative that guns in the home make you safer by highlighting stories of those who came close to gun suicide but — thanks to a barrier between themselves and a firearm — are now staunch advocates for the ultimate importance of safe gun storage.
Research shows that access to a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide by 300%.
Additionally, a 2020 Stanford University study found that men who own firearms are eight times more likely — and women who own firearms are 35 times more likely — to die by suicide than those who do not, clearly showing a direct link between firearm ownership and increased risk of suicide.
While some may read this information and think to themselves, “Yeah, that could happen to someone else, but not me; I’ve never had any suicidal ideation,” End Family Fire’s Safe Stories campaign demonstrates how a moment of crisis can happen to anyone. The stories are told by people from many different backgrounds and walks of life — veterans, a hockey player, a grieving mother, a college student, and a husband in distress after an argument with his spouse.
Now in its fifth year working to promote responsible gun ownership, End Family Fire’s campaigns have a history of success.
In 2017, a Government Accountability Office analysis of over a dozen similar organizations found that EFF alone was an effective national safe storage education effort. This is because End Family Fire’s public education campaigns have proven successful at changing attitudes and behaviors around gun usage and safe storage.
Additionally, an Ad Council study of adults living in gun-owning households found that 58% of respondents who are aware of the End Family Fire campaign have changed how or where they keep their firearms in order to to store them in a safer manner, compared to 50% of those not aware. 31% of respondents who are aware of the End Family Fire campaign have sought out information about ways to safely store their firearms in the past 12 months, compared to 7% of those not aware. And 41% of respondents who are aware of the End Family Fire campaign have talked to friends or family about safe gun storage in the past 12 months, compared to 14% of those not aware.
This newest campaign stresses the importance of proper storage of firearms in the home — keeping the gun locked and stored away from ammunition and magazine, each in a separate place. All of End Family Fire’s content though emphasizes that while an individual may feel the need to protect themselves from harm outside of the home, protecting those inside your home from firearms in a moment of crisis is equally essential.
Morgan Spry is a senior at The Ohio State University studying Public Affairs and Political Science. She is a communications intern at Brady, and previously served as a press intern in the United States Senate.
Top image and videos courtesy of End Family Fire.