The home insurance industry should consider a gun in the home a risk on par with swimming pools, trampolines, or aggressive dogs. As with these other in-home risks, available research shows a strong correlation between the presence of guns in the home and the risk of serious injury.

We argue that home insurance companies should provide a rate reduction - a “Safe Home Credit” - to homeowners with no firearms in the house, just as they do when similar risk factors (swimming pools, trampolines, or aggressive dogs) are removed from the home.

The plan is to create an “affinity” group of homeowners who don’t own guns (or are willing to remove their guns from their home) and use our collective buying power to convince at least one Massachusetts insurance company (hopefully more) to offer a “Safe Home Credit”. Insurance companies respond positively to affinity groups of potential customers.

In so doing, we will make a statement that keeping guns out of homes makes for safer homes and safer neighborhoods.