Guns Safe, Gun Safety
In the NY Times, Jane Brody pleads with parents to use gun safes to make their guns inaccessible. After all, as she notes, guns make up “10 percent of all injury-related deaths among children ages 5 and 14”. Still, I’m not quite sure how locking up guns will help since
Even in homes where all the guns were locked away, the children were as likely to report having handled a gun in the home as were children in homes where guns were stored unlocked.
Interestingly, she cite statistics that suggest kids are really good at finding the things their parents hide. 60% of the kids who handled guns at home did so without the knowledge of their parents. In other words, you might think it’s safely stored, but your kids could tell you otherwise.
Brody ends the article with some good advice on what to tell your kids about guns:
[T]hey must be told never to touch a gun or bullets and to assume that any gun is loaded and can be fired. If they find a gun anywhere or encounter someone handling a gun, they must leave the area at once, go to a safe place and tell an adult what they saw as soon as possible.
I’m a big believer in being in control of your guns and your kids. If you’re not pretty damn certain about the location and control of one or both of them, you’re doing something wrong.
August 1st, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Amen.
August 1st, 2006 at 4:35 pm
I keep two guns in my closet that aren’t locked up-my shotgun, and my wife’s (.223) AR.
Right now, Jr’s only 2. But you can bet that in a couple of years, there’ll be an electronic lock on my bedroom door.
Jr doesn’t get the combination to either of my safes.
August 1st, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Okay, I admit it, sometime between the ages of 12 and 14 I took a peek at my parents’ guns. Of course, nothing bad happened because I wasn’t an idiot. I didn’t try loading or even dry-firing them. However, my father had already taken me to the range at least once before, so I guess curiosity couldn’t kill me.
August 1st, 2006 at 6:16 pm
Education’s the way to go : there’s no more reliable safety than the well-trained human mind. All others can and are defeatable (many trigger locks can be picked or just knocked open with a hammer, a really curious kid might watch you put in the safe combination or borrow keys).
That’s not to say locks or safes are bad. They’re a great deterrent. But kids can make it to the top of refrigerators, they can take a hacksaw to a cable lock or a screwdriver to a trigger lock by age fourteen, they can watch you put in a combination when you think they aren’t looking.
August 1st, 2006 at 6:37 pm
I read a study and I’m sure I’ve recounted the results on the ‘net somewhere.
(That would be Al Gore’s Internets….)
Two groups of kids were tested to determine their behavior around a gun in an unsupervised situation. The groups were separated out via a questionaire that included a question relating to their gun safety knowledge. Those that knew nothing of guns were Group A. Those with knowledge / training / experience were Group B.
Each group was taken to a classroom by an assistant and told to wait for the instructor to arrive. Inside the room was a disabled handgun.
Group A (no exp) played with the gun for several minutes until the instructor arrive.
Group B (w/ exp) set one person to watch the gun while the rest went to find the instructor.
Knowledge is power, as they say.
August 1st, 2006 at 8:10 pm
When my son was about eight or nine, I went an left the house M1911 under the bed when I went to work. I called and asked my son to remove the magazine and hide it in the office and put the 1911 in my sock drawer. He was fully versed on safety and field stripping a 1911.
He asked me “Why?”
I explained he was ‘safe-ing’ the weapon as it is supposed to be in the sidearm safe.
He safteyed it alright. Frame in the sock drawer, mag in the office, slide in his room, barrel bushing, return guide, slide release, etc. in the a cup in the freezer.
No substitute for the saftey of knowledge.
August 1st, 2006 at 8:28 pm
If they find a gun anywhere or encounter someone handling a gun, they must leave the area at once, go to a safe place and tell an adult what they saw as soon as possible.
Say, isn’t that exactly what the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program teaches kids to do?
August 2nd, 2006 at 1:14 am
Hmm, my four year old was handling my guns last night. Well, a coupe of my shotguns.
I was downstairs cleaning them and he asked me what I was doing with them. I said cleaning them, do you want to help. He said, yes daddy. So I put gloves on him and gave him a silicone rag and had him polish the barrel of a shotgun. He enjoyed it for about 3 minutes and then said, Daddy this is BORING and left to play with his matchbox cars.