Abstract
Background Recent studies have shown that Americans appear to be increasingly owning and carrying firearms for personal protection, and are increasingly storing their firearms loaded. However, the prevalence of firearm carry and/or storage with a round chambered has not hitherto been studied; in this arming configuration the weapon is loaded, with a bullet resting against the firing pin, ready to fire if the trigger is pulled. Ostensibly this decreases reaction time in a threat situation, but carries an increased risk of accidental discharge. It is unknown what fraction of firearm owners typically carry or store their firearms in this configuration, and if there have been significant temporal trends in the practice.
Objective We examine firearms detected at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport security checkpoints between 2012 to 2017, to examine geospatial and temporal trends in the prevalence of unsafe arming configuration in detected firearms.
Results The fraction of detected firearms found to be loaded has risen significantly since 2012 (Beta Binomial logistic regression p = 0.011). States with firearm child access prevention laws have significantly fewer firearms found by the TSA to be loaded (p = 0.039).
The fraction of loaded firearms found by the TSA to also have a round chambered has also risen significantly since 2012 (Beta Binomial logistic regression p < 0.001). By 2017, 36% of firearms found loaded were also found to have a round chambered, representing an apparent concerning trend in unsafe arming configurations during carry and storage.
Conclusions Americans appear to be increasingly using and storing firearms in unsafe arming configurations. TSA firearm detection data can potentially provide a key source of data when researching trends in firearm injury.
