WEAPONS SAFETY

• Stop
• Don't touch the gun
• Leave the area
• Call an adult

Fire arms are the eighth cause of all deaths in the United States and the second leading cause of injury deaths.
 

Why kids Are at Risk

Some parents think their children aren't at risk because they don't own guns. Other parents think their kids are safe because they do own guns and the kids know "the rules." The truth is, all children are potentially at risk of unintentional firearm injury. However, knowing how and why injuries occur, and taking action, can substantially reduce that risk.

Nearly all childhood unintentional shooting deaths occur in or around the home. Half occur in the home of the victim, and nearly 40 percent occur at a friend or relative's house. Most of these deaths involve guns that have been kept loaded and accessible to children and occur when children play with loaded guns. In one recent study of parents of children ages 4 to 12, more than half reported storing a firearm loaded or unlocked in their home. An estimated 3.3 million children in the United States live in households with firearms that are always or sometimes kept loaded and unloaded.
 

Other risk factors:

• Unintentional shootings occur most often when children are unsupervised and out of school. They tend to occur in the late afternoon (peaking between 4 and 5 p.m.), during the weekend, and during the summer months and holiday season.
  
  
• Rates of unintentional firearm-related injury are higher in rural areas, where people are more likely to own firearms. Shootings in rural areas are more likely to occur outdoors with a shotgun or rifle; in cities, most shootings occur indoors with a handgun.
  
  
• Boys are far more likely to be injured and die from firearm-related incidents than girls. Of children killed in unintentional shootings, nearly 85 percent are male.
  
  
• Unrealistic perceptions of children's abilities and behavior are common factors in these incidents. Parents frequently misperceive a child's ability to gain access to and fire a gun, to distinguish between real and toy guns, to make good judgments about handling a gun, and to consistently follow gun safety rules.
  
  

• Preventing access to firearms by storing all guns and ammunition separately in locked areas that children cannot reach.
  
  
• Learning what to do when seeing or finding a gun: stop, don't touch the gun, leave the area, and call an adult. These rules should still be followed by children who have been taught to hunt and have learned gun safety.
  
  
• Learning strategies for making safe choices. The emphasis is not that guns cannot be used appropriately but that safety rules must be followed to prevent firearm death or injuries.
  
  
• Learning decision-making and creative problem solving skills that may be used to prevent unintentional and intentional injury.