A study funded by the Joyce Foundation and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in December 2021 concludes the following:

“Efforts to reduce firearm injury should consider the recent acceleration in firearm purchasing and characteristics of new gun owners.” The study report further cites than in addition to these first time gun owners, over 11 million persons – including more than 5 million children – could also be exposed to firearms in the household.

A recent article in U.S. News & World Report on the study revealed 5.1 million new gun owners in America during the pandemic (from January 2020 through April 2021). The article stated experts believe that with this significant number of first-time gun owners comes a new set of concerns: everyone living in their homes faces the risk for accidents, homicides and suicides by gun.