|
 Researchers examined survey data on gun storage from 279 parents or
guardians who had at least one gun in their household and at least
one adolescent 11 to 17 years old.
Overall, only 69% of respondents said they kept all firearms locked
up and unloaded, which is recommended by pediatricians to keep guns
out of kids’ reach and reduce the likelihood weapons will be used in
accidental shootings or suicide attempts.
While safe storage was slightly more likely in households with a
teen suffering from a mental health or substance use issue, the
difference wasn’t statistically significant.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents prevent
their children from accessing household firearms either by removing
them or locking them,” said lead study author Dr. Joseph Simonetti
of the VA Denver Healthcare System and the University of Colorado
School of Medicine, Denver.
“This is even more critical when an adolescent is at increased risk
for suicide - in this case parents and guardians should ensure that
adolescents don’t have access to a firearm to prevent them from
making an irreversible decision during an emotional crisis,”
Simonetti said by email. “It’s important to know that 90% of suicide
attempts by firearm result in death.”
The phone survey involved members of a large health network covering
the states of Washington and Idaho. Respondents were asked to agree
or disagree with a series of statements like, “I know how to teach
my children to stay away from guns effectively.”
Overall, 141 households in the analysis, or roughly half, had a teen
with medical records indicating treatment or diagnosis of depression
or bipolar disorder in the previous two years, researchers report in
the Journal of Adolescent Health, online August 16.
One in four teens lived in a household with a firearm, and 8% lived
in a home with a loaded firearm.
About one in four parents and guardians said they had just one gun
in their household, while more than half reported keeping at least
three firearms.
Keeping at least one gun loaded in the home was slightly less likely
in households with a mentally ill teen, but again, the difference
could have been due to chance.
[to top of second column] |
It’s possible the study was too small, and didn’t include enough
mentally ill teens, to see a meaningful difference in how parents
stored guns when a child had psychiatric problems, the authors note.
The study also didn’t find a meaningful difference in parents’
beliefs about gun storage based on whether the child had a mental
illness.
Nor did having a mentally ill child influence how often parents felt
they knew how to teach kids about gun safety, or whether they knew
guns needed to be locked, unloaded and stored separately from
bullets to keep kids safe.
Even so, the findings add to a large body of evidence suggesting
that many Americans don’t store their firearms locked and unloaded,
even when teens live in the household, said David Schwebel, director
of the Youth Safety Lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The presence of firearms, especially unlocked and loaded guns that
are ready to use, can increase the odds of suicide attempts and
successes, Schwebel, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by
email.
“Parents should always store their firearms safely - in fact
everyone should store their firearms safely - whether there are
children or teens in the home or only adults living there,” Schwebel
added. “Teens with mental health disorders may present particularly
high risk of suicidal injury from firearms, but all firearms should
be stored safely in every home.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2vFPzXd
J Adolesc Health 2017.
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
