What is the Safe Homes Initiative
Who We Are
We are a group of public health researchers, business people, and doctors long concerned with the consequences of home-based gun violence. We are frustrated that the issue of gun violence continues to go unsuccessfully addressed by most political leaders, and so have sought another way forward. We believe that innovative public health ideas may offer solutions.
Our Idea
Our idea is a simple one: approach the problem through the insurance industry. Homeowners receive reductions in homeowner’s insurance for removing certain risks, or taking certain precautions. Get rid of the swimming pool, for example, and insurance rates go down. The same is true for trampolines, as well as for treehouses and certain breeds of dogs.
Our Case
Our case is rooted in the data driven understanding that a home with a gun is fundamentally more dangerous than a home without one. An abundance of public health research concludes a strong correlation between one or more guns in the home with a significant increase in the risk of fatal accidents, homicides, and suicides. Therefore, the most effective means of reducing preventable gun-related injuries and death is the absence of guns in the home.
Studies show that guns in homes increase the likelihood of domestic homicide and suicide. The probability increases even further when there are children at home, or a family member who may be seriously depressed.
For the American Academy of Pediatrics, whose members have studied the issue of guns in homes for decades, “the absence of guns in homes is the most reliable and effective measure to prevent firearm-related injuries to children.” https://www.aap.org/en-us/aap-voices/Pages/Guns-in-the-Home.aspx
The idea that a gun in the home makes one safer is not supported by research. The opposite is true: the evidence is quite clear, that any home that has a gun is decidedly more likely to be the site of a firearm injury. https://www.thetrace.org/2020/04/gun-safety-research-coronavirus-gun-sales/
Our Strategy
Our strategy is to assemble a group of homeowners in Massachusetts who will pledge to move their home insurance business to the first insurance company in the Commonwealth to offer a “Safe Home Credit.” If 3,000 such homeowners sign “The Pledge to Change,” it will provide enough market power to persuade corporate leadership to make history and confirm the evidence on guns in the home.
