Development of an online map of safe gun storage sites in Maryland for suicide prevention

Abstract

Reducing access to lethal means of self-harm is a cornerstone of suicide prevention, and temporary, voluntary gun storage outside the home is one recommended approach. With the goal of facilitating access to gun storage outside the home in Maryland, we developed an online map of gun shops and law enforcement agencies willing to offer temporary, voluntary gun storage on a case-by-case basis. This project was modelled off of prior work by the Colorado Firearm Safety Coalition. As of July 2020, 32 gun shops and 3 law enforcement agencies agreed to be listed on our map. Others were hesitant to participate due to perceived legal and logistical barriers to temporary firearm storage. We demonstrate the feasibility of creating an online map that lists organisations offering temporary gun storage in Maryland. This brief report details our process, barriers encountered, and future considerations to improve access to offsite gun storage options.

Keywords:

• Firearm
• suicide/self-harm
• mental health
• web-based
• public health

Author contributions

Ms. Bongiorno and Mr. Kramer contacted organisations about participation in the map and completed all other steps to develop this online resource, collected data on organisations contacted, and drafted the manuscript. Ms. Bongiorno and Mr. Kramer contributed equally to this paper. Ms. Booty provided guidance on development of the map and critically revised the manuscript. Dr. Crifasi conceptualised and oversaw the project, provided guidance on development of the map, and critically revised the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research: The centre is funded in part by the Smart Family Foundation. Ms. Bongiorno: This publication was made possible by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), which is funded in part by Grant Number TL1TR003100 from the National Centre for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the Johns Hopkins ICTR, NCATS or NIH.