TY - JOUR T1 - Firearm purchasing and storage during the COVID-19 pandemic JF - Injury Prevention JO - Inj Prev SP - 87 LP - 92 DO - 10.1136/injuryprev-2020-043872 VL - 27 IS - 1 AU - Vivian H Lyons AU - Miriam J Haviland AU - Deborah Azrael AU - Avanti Adhia AU - M Alex Bellenger AU - Alice Ellyson AU - Ali Rowhani-Rahbar AU - Frederick P Rivara Y1 - 2021/02/01 UR - http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/27/1/87.abstract N2 - To better understand motivations behind purchase and storage of firearms during the COVID-19 pandemic, we used Amazon Mechanical Turk to conduct an online survey of individuals who did and did not purchase a firearm since 1 January 2020 in response to COVID-19. The survey was fielded between 1 and 5 May 2020. We asked about motivations for purchase, changes in storage practices and concern for themselves or others due to COVID-19. There were 1105 survey respondents. Most people who purchased a firearm did so to protect themselves from people. Among respondents who had purchased a firearm in response to COVID-19 without prior household firearm ownership, 39.7% reported at least one firearm was stored unlocked. Public health efforts to improve firearm-related safety during COVID-19 should consider increasing access to training and framing messages around the concerns motivating new firearm purchase. ER -