Worried about your kid's safety? Look at guns in the home, first

Gun safety in society and schools has been a prominent topic lately. However, in the wake of the present and ubiquitous conversations on gun legislation, it is important to pause and discuss gun safety in the home.  

Accidents happen.  In my job, as a pediatric intensive care doctor, I take care of children only after accidents have happened.  Asking parents “was she wearing a helmet?” or “was he wearing a seatbelt?” or “were the medications on a high shelf?” can be sadly irrelevant when the trauma or injury has already occurred.  However, safety counselling from your child’s general pediatrician or family doctor can be extremely effective in preventing accidents and keeping children healthy. These conversations may save your child’s life.  

Subjects that your child’s doctor could discuss may include water safety, medication and household toxin storage, vehicular and bicycle safety and firearm safety.  I want to talk about the last of these topics: firearm safety in the home.

As children grow and change, the risks and mechanisms of accidents and injuries change with them. Toddlers are curious.They will pick up and try to eat everything within reach, including Mamaw’s blood pressure medication, yummy detergent pods, a firearm on a table. School-age children can be reckless and speed down an embankment on their scooter, or emulate a TV show they just saw. Teenagers are impulsive. A underlying conflict or depression can prompt an unexpected suicide attempt or retaliative action.

Because your child is constantly changing, gun safety at any age is an important discussion to have with your child’s doctor.  On average, 19 children are shot every day in the U.S., either intentionally or unintentionally. Seven die. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has a goal to make these accidental injuries a thing of the past.  

The AAP policy on gun safety recommends that there be no guns in a home where children live.  80 percent of gun injuries to children under 15 occur at home. Despite parents’ warnings, children just don’t realize how dangerous a gun can be.  Every school age boy I know makes guns out of sticks or carrots or swim noodles. If there is an actual gun available, what boy wouldn’t pick it up and play with it?  Many children and adolescents that I have cared for in the ICU were admitted for accidental gun injuries. Although most survive, many of them are permanently disabled - living the rest of their life on machines to eat or breathe.

Having a gun in the home is far more likely to kill someone known to the family than an intruder. Household guns are more likely to be used in a homicide, suicide or accidental shooting than to be used in self defense.  Suicide is five times more likely if there is a gun in the home of a depressed teenager. In 82 percent of teenage suicides, the firearm was obtained at home and was usually owned by the child’s parents.

If a family chooses to have a gun in the home, the AAP recommends that it is kept unloaded and locked away. Bullets should be kept in a separate locked area and keys should be hidden. Seventy-five percent of children ages 5-14 know where the gun is kept in their home. Remember, children are naturally curious, and will look around when you’re not home or show the gun to their friends.  Keeping a gun locked and unloaded decreases the risk of accidental injury for children and teenagers by 73 percent.

As a parent, it’s important to know where your child is spending their time. If your child is going to a friends’ house, do not hesitate to ask if there are firearms in the home and how they are stored.  

Having a gun in the home is a personal decision.  Having a gun in the home where children are present increases that decision to a responsibility. It is up to parents to keep their children out of danger by employing safe and smart gun storage tactics.  And it is important to model good gun safety to children. Please don’t let your child end up in my ICU, or even worse, not make it there on time.

Dr. Rebecca Carchman is a pediatric intensive care physician at Mission hospital. She lives in Asheville.