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Kids and Guns
By Chris Woolston
CONSUMER HEALTH INTERACTIVE
Below:
• What should I tell my child about guns?
• When is a child old enough to use a gun responsibly?
Guns are completely safe -- as long as they're unloaded, locked away, and never touched. But as soon as a bullet enters the chamber and a hand nears the trigger, guns become a serious hazard to children. In the United States 2,852 children and teenagers died of gunshot wounds in 2004, and more than four times that many suffered acute injuries -- many of them in the home.
Of course, the surest way to protect your child from guns is to keep them out of his life. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly urges parents not to store guns at home. If you think you need a gun for protection, consider this: According to the AAP, a gun in the house is 43 times more likely to kill a friend or family member than an intruder. What's more, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns used in school-related homicides and student suicides most often come from the child's own home or from a friend or relative.
If you still want to have a gun, invest in a trigger lock. Also, keep your gun unloaded and locked away in a gun cabinet, a safe, or another secure place. (Find a different place to lock up the ammunition.) Don't simply hide the gun in a sock drawer or a dark corner of your closet. Kids have an amazing ability to sniff out hiding spots.
What should I tell my child about guns?
With an estimated 242 million firearms in the United States, gun safety can't stop at home. Your child needs to understand the dangers of guns and how to protect himself if he comes across one. As soon as possible, teach your child these important lessons:
•The bullets and the blood on TV shows may be fake, but guns can hurt and kill children in real life.
•Never touch a gun for any reason.
•A gun means it's time to go. If your child sees a gun at a neighbor's house or elsewhere, he should leave immediately and tell you or another adult about it. (It's not enough to tell your child never to touch a gun. If his friend is handling a gun, your child is in grave danger.)
When is a child old enough to use a gun responsibly?
Never, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is what the distinguished organization has to say about children and guns: Never allow your child access to your gun(s). No matter how much instruction you may give him or her, a youngster in the middle years is not mature and responsible enough to handle a potentially lethal weapon. Certainly the recent wave of school massacres give ample evidence of that.
If you still want your child to know how to hunt or shoot, wait until the teenage years to begin instruction. Your child may be intelligent and emotionally mature, and he may know the book on gun safety, but you simply can't trust him with a hunting rifle until he's at least 13 years old -- and not even then unless you are absolutely certain he is mature enough to be responsible. (Don't give your child a BB gun as a toy -- writer Alice Walker is among the many Americans who have lost an eye to a sibling's BB gun.) If you decide to let him use a gun, make it a rule that he must be accompanied by an adult.
-- Chris Woolston, M.S., is a health and medical writer with a master's degree in biology. He is a contributing editor at Consumer Health Interactive, and was the staff writer at Hippocrates, a magazine for physicians. He has covered science issues for Time Inc. Health and WebMD, and is the co-author of Generation Extra Large: Rescuing Our Children from the Epidemic of Obesity (Perseus Books, 2005).. His reporting on occupational health earned him an award from the northern California Society of Professional Journalists.
References
American Academy of Pediatrics, Guns and Children
State Medical Society of Wisconsin, Fatal Injuries in Adolescents
Source of Firearms Used by Students in School-Associated Violent Deaths - United States, 1992-1999. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Centers for Disease Control. WISQARS Fatal Injuries: Mortality Reports. November 2005. http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Centers for Disease Control. WISQARS Non Fatal Injuries: Non Fatal Injury Reports. http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Common Sense About Kids and Guns. CDC Data: Deaths and Injuries from Firearms. http://www.kidsandguns.org/study/cdcdata.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Common Sense About Kids and Guns. Fact File. http://www.kidsandguns.org/study/fact_file.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. Guns, Gun Ownership, & RTC at All-Time Highs, Less
“Gun Control,” and Violent Crime at 30-year Low. http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets ... spx?ID=126" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Reviewed by Carrie Lynn Byington, M.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Our reviewers are members of Consumer Health Interactive's medical advisory board.
To learn more about our writers and editors, click here.
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First published October 11, 1999
Last updated February 28, 2008
Copyright © 1999 Consumer Health Interactive
Copyright © 2004 - 2008 CVS Caremark . All Rights Reserved.
that's an easy decison.