Firearms and Children
October 3, 2017
Creating a Safe Environment in a Culture of Guns
The rhetoric of gun control will ring out again this week in light of the shooting in Las Vegas. However, it is exhausting to debate with people who tend to the emotional and hold steadfastly to the Constitution – a document which is so perfectly written that it can criminalize alcohol consumption and then decriminalize it; be complicit in slavery, then criminalize it. I argue that people who stand on the Constitution for gun ownership should remember that the Constitution has been the support for a few things that society found was inappropriate and downright immoral. Private gun ownership is outdated and unnecessary and can increase the risk of a child’s death by 114 % (BradyCampaign.org).
So there it is; I am biased. Some people say to me, “guns are like condoms, it’s better to have one and not need it than need it and not have one.” That doesn’t float with me. I’ve been alive for 50 years and I have never needed a gun. I’m not suggesting that if I felt like I needed one to protect my family, I wouldn’t get one, be properly trained and store it in a way that there is no chance my children would get to it but that has never been the case (and the idea that your young child will not get ahold of it is a myth exemplified by hundreds of tragic events). As far as hunting goes – I know my way to Winco for meat.
I am not arguing the 2nd amendment, my advocacy and what I write about is how to ensure a safe, healthy environment in order to contribute to the development of a healthy child. I will start with a poignant quote from BradyCampaign.org, “[statistically] keeping a gun in the home increases the risk of injury and death. Gun owners may overestimate the benefits and underestimate the risks of keeping a gun in the house.” The benefits of owning a firearm and storing it in the home may not be worth the factorial increase in risk to the children in the home.
Let’s start with homicide.
“States with the highest levels of gun ownership have 114% higher firearm homicide rates and 60 % higher suicide rates than states with the lowest gun ownership” (Miller, Hemenway, and Azrael, 2007 as quoted in BradyCampaign.org). When a firearm is in the home, the people in the home are at an increased risk of death. Children are at an increased risk because, according to a recent survey with over a million gun owning respondents, 40% of them store their firearms unlocked (Schuster, 2011). There is no reason to think 6 years later that number would have changed. In fact, with the skyrocketing sales of firearms during the Obama Presidency, (158% increase between 2008-2016, National Sport Shooting Foundation, 2017), that number probably increased as a result of people who had no interest and no “love” for firearms buying them and not learning how to use and store them properly. In fact, in 2004, roughly a third of American households with children under 18 owned a firearm – that number has surely gone up. According to the empirical evidence provided by the FBI and Center for Disease Control [which in this case, documents the public health problem that firearm deaths have become as they relate to violence in America], the likelihood that a child will be killed by a weapon kept by a family member or, by a family member with a firearm, increases dramatically. In fact, “Family violence is much more likely [3x more likely] to be lethal in a home with a firearm (NIH, as cited on Slate.com, 2017). One can always engage in hypotheticals but it isn’t a long leap from, if the gun wasn’t in the house – they wouldn’t have gotten shot by the gun. But that is homicide – suicide with a firearm is just as staggering for young people whose family keeps a firearm in the home.
Suicide, firearms and children
“Of youths who have committed suicide with firearms, 82% obtained the firearm from their home” (The National Violent Injury Statistics Systems, 2017). Young people are impulsive and often short sighted. Not having the right shoes is a social death sentence from which they can never recover. But in the case of firearms, when a child makes an impulsive, short sighted decision to pull the trigger because they are heart broken or depressed or angry, it is permanent. Again, with no firearm in the house, and 40% of gun owners surveyed reported they did not lock up their guns (and even more lock it up improperly, or believe their child doesn’t know the combination, location, etc.), it is a combination leading to tragedy. The Brady Campaign found that when a firearm is in the home with young people, the risk of suicide is increased by, “a factor of 17.” The journal, Pediatrics, came to the conclusion that private ownership of firearms with children under the age of 18 is a tragic combination and they have advised pediatricians and doctors to counsel their patients on the dangers of gun ownership with children in the home. It isn’t an advisory meeting, it is a recommendation to get rid of the firearms; not lock them up properly, not store the ammo in a different place than the weapon – it is, DO NOT MIX THEM! If you have children, get rid of your firearms.
In conclusion
I know it seems like this essay is a droning of the same rhetoric from “liberals.” But it just isn’t. I am more of a Libertarian (if I HAD to choose, which I don’t). As long as you remember that the freedom for you to swing your arm ends at the tip of my nose – I don’t care what you do. But this is about a future without stories about children dying from an accidental shooting, or a mother dying because of a domestic violence incident and children present, or the safety of a home. This is an essay asking parents to sell their guns to local law enforcement, or just melt them, or donate to the local trash compactor at the local dump to squash their firearm. I think this side of the rhetoric is important because the NRA won’t stop until everyone, man, woman and child, owns a firearm. In fact, I can’t remember the exact number, but in the United States there are enough handguns sold each year for every man, woman and child in America to own 3. But that isn’t what drives the NRA. It isn’t because they are standing up for your Constitutional right to bear arms, it is because of $$$$$$$$. The NRA actively recruits children as firearm owners – but we gasp when we see young children with “terrorist groups” learning to shoot an AK-47. The NRA has “Youth Day” at their conventions and at events featuring firearms. They have an “Eddie Eagle Safety Program” to teach firearm safety, but the empirical evidence shows that, despite their efforts, any time a child and firearms live together, the risk of injury and/or death dramatically increases.
Creating a Safe Environment in a Culture of Guns
The rhetoric of gun control will ring out again this week in light of the shooting in Las Vegas. However, it is exhausting to debate with people who tend to the emotional and hold steadfastly to the Constitution – a document which is so perfectly written that it can criminalize alcohol consumption and then decriminalize it; be complicit in slavery, then criminalize it. I argue that people who stand on the Constitution for gun ownership should remember that the Constitution has been the support for a few things that society found was inappropriate and downright immoral. Private gun ownership is outdated and unnecessary and can increase the risk of a child’s death by 114 % (BradyCampaign.org).
So there it is; I am biased. Some people say to me, “guns are like condoms, it’s better to have one and not need it than need it and not have one.” That doesn’t float with me. I’ve been alive for 50 years and I have never needed a gun. I’m not suggesting that if I felt like I needed one to protect my family, I wouldn’t get one, be properly trained and store it in a way that there is no chance my children would get to it but that has never been the case (and the idea that your young child will not get ahold of it is a myth exemplified by hundreds of tragic events). As far as hunting goes – I know my way to Winco for meat.
I am not arguing the 2nd amendment, my advocacy and what I write about is how to ensure a safe, healthy environment in order to contribute to the development of a healthy child. I will start with a poignant quote from BradyCampaign.org, “[statistically] keeping a gun in the home increases the risk of injury and death. Gun owners may overestimate the benefits and underestimate the risks of keeping a gun in the house.” The benefits of owning a firearm and storing it in the home may not be worth the factorial increase in risk to the children in the home.
Let’s start with homicide.
“States with the highest levels of gun ownership have 114% higher firearm homicide rates and 60 % higher suicide rates than states with the lowest gun ownership” (Miller, Hemenway, and Azrael, 2007 as quoted in BradyCampaign.org). When a firearm is in the home, the people in the home are at an increased risk of death. Children are at an increased risk because, according to a recent survey with over a million gun owning respondents, 40% of them store their firearms unlocked (Schuster, 2011). There is no reason to think 6 years later that number would have changed. In fact, with the skyrocketing sales of firearms during the Obama Presidency, (158% increase between 2008-2016, National Sport Shooting Foundation, 2017), that number probably increased as a result of people who had no interest and no “love” for firearms buying them and not learning how to use and store them properly. In fact, in 2004, roughly a third of American households with children under 18 owned a firearm – that number has surely gone up. According to the empirical evidence provided by the FBI and Center for Disease Control [which in this case, documents the public health problem that firearm deaths have become as they relate to violence in America], the likelihood that a child will be killed by a weapon kept by a family member or, by a family member with a firearm, increases dramatically. In fact, “Family violence is much more likely [3x more likely] to be lethal in a home with a firearm (NIH, as cited on Slate.com, 2017). One can always engage in hypotheticals but it isn’t a long leap from, if the gun wasn’t in the house – they wouldn’t have gotten shot by the gun. But that is homicide – suicide with a firearm is just as staggering for young people whose family keeps a firearm in the home.
Suicide, firearms and children
“Of youths who have committed suicide with firearms, 82% obtained the firearm from their home” (The National Violent Injury Statistics Systems, 2017). Young people are impulsive and often short sighted. Not having the right shoes is a social death sentence from which they can never recover. But in the case of firearms, when a child makes an impulsive, short sighted decision to pull the trigger because they are heart broken or depressed or angry, it is permanent. Again, with no firearm in the house, and 40% of gun owners surveyed reported they did not lock up their guns (and even more lock it up improperly, or believe their child doesn’t know the combination, location, etc.), it is a combination leading to tragedy. The Brady Campaign found that when a firearm is in the home with young people, the risk of suicide is increased by, “a factor of 17.” The journal, Pediatrics, came to the conclusion that private ownership of firearms with children under the age of 18 is a tragic combination and they have advised pediatricians and doctors to counsel their patients on the dangers of gun ownership with children in the home. It isn’t an advisory meeting, it is a recommendation to get rid of the firearms; not lock them up properly, not store the ammo in a different place than the weapon – it is, DO NOT MIX THEM! If you have children, get rid of your firearms.
In conclusion
I know it seems like this essay is a droning of the same rhetoric from “liberals.” But it just isn’t. I am more of a Libertarian (if I HAD to choose, which I don’t). As long as you remember that the freedom for you to swing your arm ends at the tip of my nose – I don’t care what you do. But this is about a future without stories about children dying from an accidental shooting, or a mother dying because of a domestic violence incident and children present, or the safety of a home. This is an essay asking parents to sell their guns to local law enforcement, or just melt them, or donate to the local trash compactor at the local dump to squash their firearm. I think this side of the rhetoric is important because the NRA won’t stop until everyone, man, woman and child, owns a firearm. In fact, I can’t remember the exact number, but in the United States there are enough handguns sold each year for every man, woman and child in America to own 3. But that isn’t what drives the NRA. It isn’t because they are standing up for your Constitutional right to bear arms, it is because of $$$$$$$$. The NRA actively recruits children as firearm owners – but we gasp when we see young children with “terrorist groups” learning to shoot an AK-47. The NRA has “Youth Day” at their conventions and at events featuring firearms. They have an “Eddie Eagle Safety Program” to teach firearm safety, but the empirical evidence shows that, despite their efforts, any time a child and firearms live together, the risk of injury and/or death dramatically increases.