Health care providers rarely ask patients if they have access to firearms in their home, according to a new study.

Doing so could diminish the risk of serious injury or death and encourage conversations about secure firearm storage, the researchers say.

For the study in Preventive Medicine researchers surveyed 3,510 English-speaking adults in five states: Colorado, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Texas, asking if a health care provider had ever asked them whether they have access to firearms.

They found that 17.1% of participants had been asked by a health care provider about firearm access. This number was largely consistent across groups, with 20.1% of those with children 17 years old or younger, 25.5% of those with a history of mental health treatment, and 21.4% of firearm owners ever having been screened for firearm access.

“Although we know that firearm access increases the risk for fatal injury for everyone in the home, health care providers are rarely asking about firearm access,” says lead author Allison Bond, a doctoral student at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University.

“In order to prevent these injuries and deaths, health care providers need consider adding screening for firearm access into standard practice so that they are better positioned to then provide resources on secure firearm storage to the families that would most benefit from that information.”

The researchers also examined which factors were associated with greater odds of having been screened by a health care provider for firearm access.

They found that people with a lifetime history of suicidal thoughts, men, those who identified as white, parents with children 17 years old or younger living in the home, those with a history of mental health treatment, and firearm owners were more likely to have been screened.

Read the full article about gun access by Patrice Harley at Futurity.