Over the last two decades, states with reckless access or no secure storage laws saw a far greater increase in their gun suicide rate among young people than states with the most protective secure storage laws.
Source: CDC, WONDER, 1999–2022 (accessed August 8, 2023); Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund’s analysis of secure storage laws. Some states changed laws between 1999 and 2022. One state adopted a “not in possession” law: Oregon (2021). States that adopted a “likely to access” law include California (2014), Nevada and New York (2019), and Colorado (2021). States that adopted a “does access” law include Illinois (2000), New Hampshire (2001), Washington (2019), and Maine (2021). Since 2022, the end year of this analysis, several states have passed new secure storage laws: Connecticut (not in possession, 2023), Maryland, (likely to access, 2023), Michigan (does access, 2023), New Mexico (does access, 2023), and Vermont (does access, 2023).