Dr. Claire McCarthy is certainly a well-rounded woman; a pediatrician, a mom with five kids, a writer and blogger. So it’s no wonder she only seeems to have time for quick and simple (not to say simplistic) solutions to some problems and noted that yesterday was something called National ASK Day. ASK as in, Asking Saves Kids. The question: “Is there a gun where your child plays?”
That’s the question that the Center to Prevent Youth Violence (CPYV) and the American Academy of Pediatrics would like us to ask. Thursday, June 21st is National Ask Day.
Unfortunately (if accuracy is a concern), the good doctor starts by quoting some stats from the CPYV website. She starts out slowly; 33% of households have a gun (hmm, according to the folks over at the Gallup poll, it’s more like 47%), 40% don’t lock them up, a gun in the home is 22 times more likely to kill someone in the home (wait, what happened to 43 times more likely?). But then she gets into the really scary numbers. For the children, of course:
Many unintentional injuries of children and teens result from access to firearms in the home.
Oh, yeah now it’s “children and teens”, that way they can include “kids” up to 19 years old.
- In 2007, 138 children and teens ages 0-19 were killed in unintentional shootings (NCIPC).
And in 2008 it was 123, and in 2009 it was 114. In fact, except for a couple of blips (and the discontinuity between 1998 and 1999 when the CDC changed classifications) accidental child and teen deaths have been pretty steadily dropping for 3 decades now.
- In 2009, 3,588 children and teens ages 0-19 were treated in emergency rooms for unintentional gunshot wounds (NCIPC).
Over thirty-five hundred sounds like a lot . . . but how does that compare to other kinds of accidental injury?
Perhaps our efforts would be better directed towards other hazards?
- In 78% of accidental shooting deaths of children under 15, the child was shot by another person. In these cases, the person was almost always a friend or family member, and more than half of the time, the shooting occurred at someone else’s home (Hemenway).
A-ha! That is it, right there. Unfortunately Dr. Claire, CPYV, Hemenway and all the rest draw exactly the wrong conclusion. You shouldn’t be “non-judgmentally” asking do you have guns in your home? What you should be asking the other parents (age appropriate, of course) is:
- Have you taught your child the Four Rules of gun safety?
- Have you taken your child to the range and taught them to shoot?
- Is your child familiar with firearms and knows they are not toys?
- Does your child know that if they find a gun they should stop, leave the area and find an adult?
But the vitally important thing for your child’s safety is:
- Have you taught your child the Four Rules of gun safety?
- Have you taken your child to the range and taught them to shoot?
- Is your child familiar with firearms and knows they are not toys?
- Does your child know that if they find a gun they should stop, leave the area and find an adult?
Don’t gun-proof you child’s surroundings, gun-proof your child.