> but if this can be applied, it may easily reduce it.

Or, it can result in more dead people.

Guns that don't go off when the trigger is pulled get people killed.

FWIW, "cleaning their gun" is usually cop for "the family doesn't need the stigma of a suicide ane needs the insurance money if any".

There's also some evidence that a lot of the "kid found a gun" are successful murders (by parents) or, at best, depraved indifference. The families that have them are usually "interesting".

Can you site some sources, please?

IIRC, the stuff about kids is in Gary Kleck's "Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America" although there was probably some stuff in Philip Cook's "Gun Control".

I stopped reading the research 10-15 years ago, long after it became clear that the research didn't have any effect on people's positions.

The other good source is "Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms" by Wright and Rossi. They were tasked by the Carter administration with gathering the available research to prove that gun control worked.

It can't be applied. No one wants their gun's efficacy to be subject to the failure of batteries.