Every time our seven-year-old daughter has a playdate with a new friend, Kia asks a simple question.
“Do you have any guns in the house?”
She gets nervous about asking, but so far nobody has been offended by the question. Her own father keeps a gun in the house. So do several of our friends. But it’s something we want to know about. If the answer is yes, the follow-up question is:
“What’s your gun safety plan?”
The general reaction to the question is “I should be asking the same question.” Accidental injury and death is a real threat to children in the United States. A few sobering bullet points:
- Children in the U.S. are nine times more likely to die in gun accidents than children anywhere else in the developed world
- More than 100 children are killed in gun accidents every year, and 76% of the time the gun belonged to a parent or family member
- Suicide rates for children ages 5-14 are double the average within industrialized nations, driven by a firearm-related suicide rate that is 10 times the average of the same group
The real numbers are even higher. Many accidental gun deaths are reported as homicides. The same article gets into details re: what ages children are most at risk. Three-year-olds, who are old enough to manipulate objects but don’t understand the dangers guns pose, are particularly vulnerable.
This is not a screed against personal gun ownership. It’s a just a reminder. Kids are curious. Kids will explore every nook and cranny of your house. Kids do things without considering or understanding the consequences. Kids and loaded, unsecured guns are a potentially lethal combination.
Don’t leave your damn guns lying around. If there is even a small chance of a child setting foot in your house, store them locked and unloaded.
And ask that awkward question.
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Abby Boid
Wow. Just wow that in the US you have to ask these question. But you are right, you do have to ask and, as with any child safety questions, family friendly folk will not mind you asking it at all.
sierraschwartz
We have firearms for personal safety but you are right in that there is always a risk. Great reminder to keep our kids safe.
Alex Chen
Totally necessary. Not just guns – the same pettains to dangerous pets. It was real sad to read an article from two years ago that a pet python that escaped its tank killed a 3-year-old girl in her sleep. It’s atrocious – why do people let these things happen?
Alex Chen
*pertains
Dave Kinsella
And when the terrorist or armed burglar comes in just ask them to politely wait while you fetch the gun from the safe amd load it…
J.D. Moyer
Sure, loaded guns at the ready are more effective for home defense. But I would rather use security measures that don’t endanger children in my home, even if marginally less effective.
Here’s an interesting Harvard paper about how guns are actually used in the home (most often to “intimidate intimates”) and how the “guns for self-defense” narrative is largely mythical. “Grandma shoots robber” is a good story when it happens but it just doesn’t happen that often. Children shooting themselves accidentally, and guns used to intimidate family members, are both far more common.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-threats-and-self-defense-gun-use-2/
Dave Kinsella
I think my point was more if you have to lock your gun away unloaded then what’s the point at all. Here in Ireland we have very strict gun laws, very few people have them, yet we have a homicide rate about a third of the US.
J.D. Moyer
We have many recreational shooters (target practice, hunters, etc.) in the U.S. so there are reasons for gun ownership other than personal defense.
A lower homicide rate in the U.S. is something to strive for. Gun control works well on the island of Hawaii, not so much in Illinois (Chicago has a high gun homicide rate) where guns come in from neighboring states. We need a national plan here.
Congrats on the McGregor UFC win!