Even with precautions, guns in homes with kids pose a danger

The father was beaming with pride as he described his little girl's verbal skills and manual dexterity. The toddler really did sound accomplished, already displaying quite a large vocabulary as well as an uncanny ability to get into just about everything.

As the girl's dad and I went over some childproofing basics, the young man commented that he still owned a gun, a carry-over from his bachelor hunting days. The father assured me that although the gun was in the house, it was not loaded and was stored safely out of reach of little hands. He also stressed that he never kept bullets or other ammunition in the home.

In their 2005 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. David C. Grossman and colleagues note that 35 percent of U.S. households with children under the age of 18 have at least one gun with 43 percent of these homeowners reporting the presence of at least one unlocked gun.

The JAMA group finds that young household members generally have a reduced risk of both gun-related unintentional injuries and suicide attempts when safe gun storage practices are observed. The researchers therefore recommend four distinct strategies when a firearm is present in a household with children: keep the gun locked up; store the gun unloaded; keep all ammunition under lock and key; and store the ammunition in a site far removed from the gun's own safety lockbox.

All children should be taught a healthy respect for guns, and need to know the difference between toy guns and real firearms. Since children can come across guns in the outside world, far from the safety of home and parents, the California Bureau of Firearms promotes four gun safety teaching points. If a child encounters a gun, he needs to stop what he is doing, never touch the weapon, leave the area immediately and tell an adult what he has seen.

Pediatric safety advocates point out that while safe firearm storage practices and educational efforts are important, they are still second best to the most effective gun strategy out there: keeping guns entirely out of homes with children.

As policy advisers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health state: “Although many gun owners keep a gun in the home for protection, studies have shown that guns are rarely used for this purpose and that the risks of keeping a gun in the home outweigh the benefits.”

• Dr. Helen Minciotti is a mother of five and a pediatrician with a practice in Schaumburg. She formerly chaired the Department of Pediatrics at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights.