Study Shows Gun Safety IS Over-Estimated By Parents

In Harm's Way: Guns and Kids
Study Suggests Many Parents Fool Themselves About Firearm Safety

Not being a big fan of gun control efforts, nor being a Second Amendment fanatic, I think there is ground for requiring proper safety and handling education for all gun owners, especially when most of the assaults and murders committed with handguns are done by people that are friends or relatives of the victims... and then there are the kids that are killed by improperly stored weapons.

I believe in the right to keep and bear arms. But, as I read the Second Amendment, that right is reserved for subsistence, self-defense, and organized militia. An ordinary citizen could hunt and defend his home and property with a rifle or shotgun. However, a member of an organized militia ought to be able to have any weapon supplied to the military, providing it is stored in a militia-regulated manner, and is only used for purposes of the militia. Handguns are not ordinarily used for hunting, seldom offer the best form of self-defense, and are rarely effective as a weapon for military purposes... and are the number one concern of those concerned with gun safety. I do not believe the government should have carte balnche in regulating hand guns, but it certainly makes sense--both common sense and constitutional sense--that some form of training be required for gun ownership, that some people (i.e. convicted felons involved in violent crimes, children, those with diminished reasoning abilities) should not be allowed to own weapons, and that the government has some right to assure that weapons are stored in such a manner as to provide for safety of children and others.

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 has found 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.

The issue of access to guns in the home has assumed greater urgency since May 8, when two Fairfax County police officers were shot to death by Matthew Kennedy, a delusional 18-year-old armed with seven guns, among them an AK-47-style assault rifle.

Kennedy, who was killed in a shootout with police, lived with his parents and 9-year-old sister in a Centreville townhouse from which authorities said they seized 15 other guns; some were found propped against walls and two were loaded. Federal officials said last week they are investigating whether Kennedy's parents committed any weapons violations before his rampage.

While Miller's study focused on parents who brought their children to a family practice clinic in rural Alabama, experts say the Fairfax murders underscore the risks of guns in the hands of youths, especially those who, like Kennedy, are mentally ill.

"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.

Relying solely on strategies that seek to dampen the natural curiosity of a child, such as telling children guns are dangerous, or assuming that a child will be unfailingly obedient and never touch a weapon if he finds one, is ineffective at best, Miller said.

Those are the operating principles behind many gun safety programs aimed at children, including the Eddie Eagle classes sponsored by the National Rifle Association (NRA), health experts say. Children are told not to touch a gun if they find one, to leave the area and tell an adult immediately.

"Teaching kids to be safe around guns doesn't work" in preventing accidents, said Jon Vernick, co-director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Studies have found that children exposed to Eddie Eagle programs are no less likely to play with guns than children who don't take the class, he added.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam disputed that.

"This is probably the first time I've heard that education is a bad thing and not effective," he said. The Eddie Eagle program was developed about 10 years ago by a psychologist and has been endorsed by the Justice Department, he said. Its adoption by school districts around the country, Arulanandam said, "is a testament to its effectiveness."