Keeping children safe around guns: Pitfalls and promises

Firearms are the source of a significant number of preventable injuries and deaths to children. The risk of homicide, suicide, and unintentional deaths and injuries is greater when a firearm is present, particularly when the firearm is stored unsafely. Up to 40% of children have access to firearms in their homes, and adolescents have greater access across a wider domain of areas. Children's (especially boys') fascination with guns has been well-documented and appears resistant to intervention. Young children lack the cognitive maturity to generalize lessons learned in the classroom to the real world of their homes and play areas. Older children and adolescents believe themselves to be invulnerable to injury and are easily persuaded by their peers to act in defiant and reckless ways. The interventions themselves are rarely based on sound behavioral principles, lack adequate evaluation criteria, and may promote a gun-carrying norm. Community-based education, media campaigns, access prevention laws, and physician-based counseling also appear to have little significant impact on gun ownership and safe storage practices of parents. Prevention of firearm injuries and deaths among children and adolescents needs to be depoliticized and reframed as a public health issue.