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Abstract
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A group of colleagues and I visited two gun stores earlier this year as part of an informational effort led by a nonpartisan community group in Chicago, IL, called United Power for Action and Justice. We were there to learn from gun shop owners about gun safety devices as well as to learn how gun owners teach gun safety to their children and to visitors in their homes.
I had never been in a gun store or had ever held a real firearm, so I was a bit overwhelmed. My childhood experience was with toy guns and BB guns, so I never received any formal education about how to safely handle guns of any kind. My experiences as a clinical provider, however, have unfortunately been in caring for children injured with gunshot wounds and fatal injuries in the intensive care unit, which is a consequence of the proliferation of the availability of guns in the United States. So, one may understand why my perspective on firearms is slanted.
The first salesperson, who was in his 20s, answered our questions carefully and thoughtfully. He had learned about guns while in the military. We learned that every firearm is sold with a cable lock by law in the state of Illinois. Those laws vary by state.1 The shop also had safe deposit boxes available for purchase for gun storage. When we asked about firearm safety education for children, he said there were several websites that would provide that kind of information; he did highlight the general approaches to teaching children about gun safety as outlined on some of those websites. Three website examples are the National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle Gunsafe program,2 Project Child Safe by the National Shooting Association,3 and Handguns in the House by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).4
We learned that some guns have safety protections installed on the gun itself. We asked the salesperson “when a buyer comes into the shop and wants to buy a gun, do you also include child safety education when you teach them about the gun?” The answer was that they do give general gun safety tips and provide information on how to safely store the gun if customers ask ...
Language: en |