More than half of parents who own guns improperly store their firearms at home according to recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics, a study entitled "A Comparison of Parental Firearm Storage Patterns and Children's Access to Firearms" found.
Of the parent participants who owned guns, 53 percent stored their firearms unsafely, according to one of the study researchers, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine Physician at Emory’s School of Medicine Kiesha Fraser Doh.
“What is recommended is that the firearm is stored locked up, unloaded and the ammunition separate from the firearm,” Fraser Doh said.
Fraser Doh said the study also found that less than half of children ages 7 to 17 were able to correctly identify the difference between a real and toy gun when shown side-by-side photos.
“The importance of [this finding] is that you don't want to have children decipher between toy versus real [guns], nor do you want them to actually pick up the gun to begin with,” Fraser Doh said.
Fraser Doh said children face a significant risk of injury after picking up a gun, adding that she was concerned by the number of children who reported they could access a gun within a day.
Fourteen percent of children whose parents own guns and four percent of children whose parents do not own guns said they knew how to obtain a firearm within a day, according to the study. Only five percent of all parents believed their children could access a gun.
The study, conducted during a three-month period in 2017, surveyed 297 parent-child pairs who attended three pediatric emergency clinics throughout the Southeast for non-gun related reasons. The researchers asked participants separate questions regarding their knowledge and behavior relating to gun storage.
Researchers first thought of the idea for the study about two years ago after seeing an increased number of courses about educating children on gun safety and an increase in the number of toys marketed to children that resembled guns.
“There was a news report about a child in Cleveland who was killed by … police officers who thought he had a real gun,” Fraser Doh said.
Fraser Doh noted that the study’s findings could have an impact on gun accessibility debates. Of the surveyed parents, 80 percent said they supported child access prevention laws that would impose legal penalties on parents if they did not store their firearms safely, regardless of whether they owned firearms themselves.
“Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth, and firearm death is about 50 percent of that cause,” Fraser Doh said. “The reason why is because there’s easy access to firearms in the homes of these children who are suicidal.”
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