Parents naive about children's access to guns in the house

[Drizzt]

Parents naive about children's access to guns in the house
Washington Post
BY SANDRA G. BOODMAN

Gun-owning parents who think their children don't know where firearms are kept or haven't handled the weapons without permission may be in for a disturbing surprise.

A new study involving 201 parents and an equal number of their children indicates that 39 percent of kids knew the location of their parents' firearms, while 22 percent said they had handled the weapons, despite their parents' assertions to the contrary.

Parents who had talked to their children about gun safety were just as likely to be misinformed about their children's actions as those who said they never had discussed the matter.

"Children are really curious and have lots of things in their home that parents have no intention of letting them find -- but they do," said Matthew Miller, associate director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and co-author of the study in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

The gun safety study is the first to compare the responses of parents and their children, ages 5 to 14, who were interviewed separately.

Age was not a factor in whether children had handled weapons, Miller added. Five-year-olds were just as likely to report doing so as 14-year-olds.

"Adolescents act impulsively, whether or not they have psychiatric problems," Miller said, noting that studies have found that a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide and homicide, as well as accidental shootings. "It's up to parents -- not children -- to provide a safe environment."

He advises parents who don't want to part with their guns to lock unloaded weapons in a place separate from ammunition, which should also be locked. Guns should be accessible only by a key the parent carries at all times. If guns are stored in a safe with a combination, only parents should know the combination.

"You want to make it as hard as possible for your kid to get that gun," Miller said.

Jon Vernick, co-director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, adds: "Teaching kids to be safe around guns doesn't work."

http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/living/people/family/14712868.htm

Typically unbiased reporting from the Washington Post.....

 

[Polishrifleman]

Why do people print stuff like this. There are so many holes even a Swiss person with a good cheese knife couldn't cut through it all.

201 Parents? 201 Kids? Is that 100.5 families? Fathers or Mothers? 80 kids knew the location of the guns, were they from the same families? 40 of those 80 actually handled the guns. To me that means that 121 kids aren't paying attention, who knows the number of parents not doing their job and as for the 40 kids between 5 and 14, hopefully most were out deer hunting.

Why wouldn't the kids know where (most of) the guns are?

Phsychiatric problems???? What is that comment about.

Wow, if you have a gun in the house the % increases that you could have an accidental shooting. I'll have to think hard on that one. What is the % if there isn't a gun in the house especially at the time of the shooting (Drive bye's, neighborhood discharge whatever). I bet it is a huge % increase.

"Teaching kids to be safe.... doesn't work" He is right, I still can't get my kids to stop playing in the dirty pond water, wiping their runny nose everywhere, washing their hands (every time) when they go to the bathroom.

 

[warriorsociologist]

Hmmm...

"Teaching kids to be safe around guns doesn't work."

- worked just fine for me growing up. Dad's rifle was behind the bedroom door, others were in the house too. Growing up around them, using them as the tools they are (just like sharp knives, pointy scissors, matches, etc.) taught me what they were, what I was allowed (or not allowed) to do with them, and how to be safe with them.

 

[WeedWhacker]

"Teaching kids to be safe around guns doesn't work."

It did work for my siblings and I. I'm quite certain my folks *thought* they had taken adequate precautions against us doing anything more than waving around an empty, trigger-locked firearm, but we found the keys and those old-style Master-branded trigger locks popped right off with the help of an old Craftsman screwdriver (marred the finish on the 'ol Browning, though - whoops!).

As I recall, my siblings were a bit less safe than I'd liked to have admit, but never used them as "toys", never pointed them at people (since no bad guys ever presented themselves), and only bothered to break out a firearm on the rare instance when both parents were out of town, etc.

My father did indeed teach us the proper use of and dangers of firearms.

The single time I recall traipsing around the house with a loaded pistol is the time when I was home alone (no parents, no siblings), and I'd heard "noises" from downstairs. After a brief inspection, and the lingering thought about how much trouble I'd be in if the pistol 'went off without me pulling the trigger', nothing was found and I quickly replaced the firearm in its original position and state.

 

[xd9fan]

"Teaching kids to be safe around guns doesn't work."

Nice try!! Sorry no Govt big brother program needed here.....kids DO listen to thier parents. Funny how this crowd peaches to us that parents are the "anti-drug" yet with guns......you cant do crap.

When My boys reach an age the wife and I agree on......I WANT my boys to know where the guns are. (for protection...etc.)

 

[pax]

Huh. You know, every single one of my children knows where our guns are kept.

Quick, call the cops.

Come to think of it, every single one of them has handled my firearms, too.

Of course, we did that on purpose. With premeditated aforethought. See http://www.corneredcat.com/KidsAndGuns/FirstLesson.htm for the "how," and http://www.corneredcat.com/KidsAndGuns/locks.htm for the "why."

I knew our plan was working the day my three youngest children (then aged approximately 5, 6, and 7) stumbled across a handgun belonging to a friend of ours. They briefly quarrelled over whether the handgun was a "real gun" or not, then reminded each other that if they didn't know it was a toy they had to act like it was real, and quickly hurried to find me and tell me about it.

Good kids.

pax

 

[ReadyontheRight]

Jon Vernick, co-director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, adds: "Teaching kids to be safe around guns doesn't work."

Yeah -- The statistics would have actually been that 100% of kids had access to their parents guns, except for the large percentage who killed their friends and then themselves due to the fact that they had access to guns.

So...These Bozos use the fact that kids are smarter than we think to suggest that kids are likely to act stupider than we think?

The most worthwhile evidence from this collection of 201 anecdodes is that TEACHING KIDS TO BE SAFE AROUND GUNS DOES WORK!! since the kids HAD access to guns and did not do anything bad with them.

The junk that masquerades as "science" today is very sad.

 

[Zen21Tao]

I would like to see the population form which the sample was chosen. Does the study include a large number of single parents that can't afford a gun safe to deny access to their kids.

I wonder for the number that knew where the guns were kept, how many of their responses were "in that big ass gun safe"? It's rather obvious that a kid is goind to know the location of a gun if it is in a large safe.

Also, of the number of kids that said they handled the guns how many of the guns had a trigger lock on them when they were handled?

 

[ede]

my grown kids tell me they never touched a gun. they both had seen them, knew where they were, knew what they did, and maybe even had fired one once or twice. i think the big thing is to make the location of the gun(s) or the gun itself into a big secret. they also knew they weren't allowed to touch them and knew they could touch them all they wanted if they asked.

 

[444]

I didn't read the article real carefully, but what I read seemed reasonable to me.
Kids are curious. And, IMO most kids are mature enough to handle guns without adult supervision. I also agree that if you try to hide the guns, the kids will find them.
Bottom line, I think it is the responsible thing to have a gun safe and keep your guns secure at all times.

Yes, when I was a kid I saw my dad hide a pistol in the closet. He tried to distact me when he did it, which made me immediately realize there was something cool being hidden. I immediately made it a point to find all the guns and when my parents wern't home I snuck them all out and shot them. Every time they wern't home. My friends did the same. My dad did teach me about guns and did take me out shooting. Didn't matter. I wanted to shoot all the time.
I do think that I was fairly safe with them due to having some parental training.

 

[Tatu]

I agree 444...Kids are curious. My dad never hid guns from me and my brother when we were growing up. In fact he encouraged us to study about them and learn how to opearte them properly. I think kids should express their curiousness so that parents can educate them properly.

 

[Byron Quick]

My Dad's firearms were kept on a gun rack...sitting on the floor. With the ammunition in the drawer. No lock. No chain. My parents told me not to play with guns. I didn't. I'd been given at graphic lesson about the inherent power in firearms at the age of four. It stuck. Kids over at my house didn't mess with the guns.

I had a friend who, based on later events, probably did have psychiatric problems. His father taught him about safety with firearms. Boy did a lot of stupid things. Playing around with firearms wasn't among them.

I got in a lot of fights. Not with the firearms. Not with the BB guns.

 

[Limeyfellow]

The problem is the kids who are playing with guns when they are exploring and find them. The parents believe they are sensible enough to have firearms but haven't the common sense to give their children instruction of not to play. Happens alot around here it seems. The last time was a month or two ago in the city when some little boy found the shotgun and pulled the trigger thinking it a toy right infront of his brother and came screaming out in terror covered in blood. Its always a few parents screwing everything up for everyone else back they are so backwards to think their kids will never find the stuff and not taught from an early age its not a toy and don't play with it.

 

[the 22 junkie]

OH MY GOD! I HAPPEN TO BE A YOUNG IMPULSIVE ADOLESCENT WHO KNOWS WHERE THE GUNS ARE KEPT AND HAVE HANDLED THEM! SOMEONE CALL THE COPS AND TELL THEM THAT I COULD SNAP ANY MINUTE NOW!!!




Man, the tone this article takes really ticks me off. They act as if kids can't be trusted at all and are completely irresponsible. Oh, but ov courz, ze man in ze suit zeys it iz so, he vust be correct, no? Good Lord, I am not an idiot, I know better than to screw around with guns. Hmmmm.... I guess teaching me to be safe arounnd guns has worked, eh?

 

[xd9fan]

Thanks for the links Pax, I bookmarked them. (It is my hope my 3 learn these lessens well)

 

[Standing Wolf]

Another chunk of the effort to turn the nation's civil rights into a public health problem.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Amazing, isn't it!

Parents are the anti-drug, but teaching about guns doesn't work.

Parents, tell your kids not to smoke. They listen to you. But teaching kids about guns doesn't work.

Yeah, right.

And let's not forget the lockout on the evil TV programs--most kids learn to defeat that by the time they're in kindergarten. But watch TV WITH yr kids, and evaluate the programming together?? Naaah--never work!

My experience: When I was abt. 13, we visited my grandparents. (This was a big deal; we lived half a continent away.) My grandfather told me that if in my explorations in his house I were to find a gun I was to assume it was loaded and act accordingly. This was my first lesson ever in gun safety. (No guns @ home when I was growing up.)

Anyhow, I listened to Grandpop, whom I respected, paid attention, and when I found his .22 I left it alone. There never was a problem.

When I had a kid myself, there were multiple guns in the house. When #1 son was about 3, we made a tour and I showed him where every one of them was. Told him he could handle them any time he asked, and I was there. Told him to leave them strictly alone when I wasn't. AFAIK he never violated that. When he was older, he had friends over to play, and there just never was a problem. Of course, he never had any psychopathic friends. (edit to add) : And, he never had kids over when there wasn't a parent at home.

He & I started shooting together when he was 7 or 8. GREAT kid & dad experience! We went through Hunter Safety classes together, too, when he was 12, and did our homework together.

#1 son is now in Boston, MA, working, and his friends are horrified to learn that he has a gun back home. "You have a GUN??? Gee, Harry, and you're such a nice guy!" He finds it amusing.

 

[Meta]

Doesn't it seem a little silly that we are even talking about this? I mean, only about 100 kids per year are killed in firearm accidents. That includes uncle bob cleaning his `empty' shotgun while pointing it at little Billy and pulling the trigger. Far more good would come out of studying the effects of leaving small plastic objects around where little kids might choke on them. Far more good would come from hammering home the idea that kids need to be watched around SWIMMING POOLS. Far more good would come from parents learning to install safety gates on stairs rather than trigger locks on guns. Its insane that such a big deal is made of all of this. Guns are just about the safest thing in the house considering how few kids are killed each year and how many households own guns.....many of which are stored in the sock drawer without a lock!

 

[Crosshair]

When I was little I knew exactly where my parents guns where. In the gun safe. My dad also showed me basic gun safety even though we did not go shooting often. He used my mom's MKII to demonstrate the importance of checking the chamber after removing the magazine when we where out shooing once.

 

[Shootcraps]

Center for Gun Policy and Research

Isn't this Handgun Control's new name?

Both of my daughters have handled my guns and know where they are. They can go shooting with me anytime they want.