Researcher says few families report safe firearm storage

Wake Forest U/Baptist Med Center ^ | 4-Jun-2007 | Rae Bush

[the anti-mahdi]

hahahahaha will do...

[the anti-mahdi]

We raise children these days into their thirties and they are still children

[beenhereforever]

In hopes that some of the people who have shown interest will get back, I'd like to explain something that all gun owners should know about the numerous studies that have been done in recent years supposedly about "unsafe gun storage."

The studies are good studies, but they aren't actually about storage, as the ignorant doctors represent them to be. The problem doesn't arise from bias. It arises from their ignorance. I haven't even looked at this particular study yet, but I would bet money that the problem is the same as with all the others.

You see, gun storage is about what you do with the gun when you aren't using it and don't have it under your personal control (as by having it on you or up on the shelf in the room where you're near and can control access to it).

All these "storage" studies actually involve the survey peeples contacting an adult at the adult's home and asking whether there is a child in the home and if there is a gun loaded or unlocked in the home at the time. All the studies get the questions from a "healthy families" survey developed by ignorant or biased doctors several years ago.

When someone at home along with her gun answers, because she has a gun ready for self/home defense, that there is a gun that is loaded and unlocked, the doctors conclude that it is stored unsafely even though it is being used, not stored. For further explanation, see http://www.gunsandcrime.org/storage.html

Rather than people just telling the doctor about "boundary" or telling the doc to mind his own business, I'd like people to tell their doctors that the studies they're told are about storage aren't really - and that the studies are worthless because the study questions were developed by people too ignorant about gun use to see the difference between usage and storage. And the problem is mainly with pediatricians, so we need to explain to our children and grandchildren so that they can be prepared to set their pediatricians straight.

Although the medical community wrongly interprets the results of these studies, quite valid studies have shown that a large portion of the young children (especially boys) left around a firearm actually find and "mess" with them, even when the parents are confident that their children are well trained and would not do so. Also, when looking at difficulty of pulling a trigger, don't assume that the gun could only be discharged by holding the gun and pulling the trigger in the normal way. Could it be fired by the child using both thumbs whild holding it with the grip down on the floor and the muzzle pointed up at the child's head? If you have children around, please don't let them be near unsecured firearms if someone isn't right there ready to control access.