If your family is one of the 40 percent of American families with a gun at home, you need to follow some tips for gun safety at home. Do your kids know where it is? Have they handled it? Are you sure?
Researchers asked these questions of 201 families at a clinic in rural Alabama, and nearly 40 percent of the parents got the answers wrong. The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found that of the children under age 10 with guns in their homes:
• 73 percent knew where that gun is kept; and
• 36 say they've handled the firearm.
Meanwhile, 39 percent of the parents who said their kids did not know where the family's guns were kept, and 22 percent who said their kids had never handled a gun were contradicted by their children. And the findings were as true in households where parents reported having discussed firearm safety with their children as in homes where they had not.
If there is a gun in your home, it is widely recommended that you keep it unloaded and locked up, with the ammunition locked up separately, and with the key or combination accessible only to you. As a backup measure, teach your children never to touch or pick up a gun if they find one, but to leave the area immediately and tell an adult.
Guns in Other Families' Homes
Given the high percentage of homes with guns, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urges parents to inquire about the presence of guns in a home - and how the guns are stored - before allowing children to visit there. The AAP recommends simply including the question among others you would ask before sending your children to someone's home.
© Parenthood.com, used with permission.
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