Rutgers School of Public Health Receives Grant to Bring Voluntary Firearm Storage Program to New Jersey

The New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at the Rutgers School of Public Health has received a $111,638 grant to bring The Armory Project, a voluntary, temporary firearm storage program designed to help prevent suicide, to New Jersey.

Funded by the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the project will establish a network of firearm retailers, ranges, and other trusted community partners where firearm owners can voluntarily store their firearms outside of the home during periods when they or someone in their household may be at increased risk for suicide.

Allison Bond, assistant professor in the Department of Urban-Global Public Health and member of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center, will serve as principal investigator. Michael Anestis, a professor in the Department of Urban-Global Public Health and the center's executive director, will serve as a co-investigator.

“Veterans and firearm owners are an essential part of our community, and we know that creating time and distance between someone experiencing a crisis and a firearm can save lives,” said Bond. “The Armory Project gives us the opportunity to work directly with firearm owners, retailers, ranges, and community partners to make temporary firearm storage a safe, accessible, and accepted option, particularly for Veterans and their families. We're really excited to bring The Armory Project to New Jersey, to build these relationships across the state, and work together to make sure that when someone needs a little extra time and space, they have a safe option available.”

The Armory Project is a suicide prevention initiative that works within firearm-owning communities to create practical options for temporarily moving firearms outside of the home. The approach is voluntary and designed to meet firearm owners where they are, working with retailers, ranges, and other trusted partners rather than relying solely on traditional health care settings.

Firearms are involved in approximately half of suicides in the general U.S. population and about 70% of suicides among military Veterans (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2025; Department of Veterans Affairs, 2025). Creating time and physical distance between a person experiencing a suicidal crisis and a firearm can provide an important opportunity for that crisis to pass and for the individual to access support.

Yet many firearm-owning households do not have an option for temporarily storing a firearm outside their home.

The Armory Project was founded in Louisiana in 2021 by researchers affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs working alongside Veteran-owned firearm retailers. The initiative has since expanded to several states, creating networks of retailers and community organizations willing to provide temporary firearm storage.

The new funding will bring that model to New Jersey for the first time and adapt it for the state’s firearm-owning and Veteran communities.

The project builds on the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center’s broader work to develop and evaluate evidence-informed approaches to reducing firearm injury and death while partnering directly with the communities those efforts are intended to serve.