Increasingly, medical and mental health organizations are treating gun violence and firearm safety as a matter of public health — just as public health agencies advise on everything from alcohol consumption to safe storage of hazardous chemicals in the home.
As part of that focus, there’s an effort to open conversation between doctors, patients and parents about gun safety and firearms in the home. “We think its way overdue to have these discussions,” says Dr. James Gessner, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Experts say it’s important to talk about the topic on a societal and individual level. Gessner stresses that it’s not about gun ownership — but gun safety. “We’re not talking about whether or not you should own the gun. We’re talking about where do you store it? How do you make sure that someone with a behavioral health problem can’t get a hold of it? And keeping it away from children.”
[See: The 5 Latest Poison Control Threats Kids Face.]
Talking to the Doctor About Guns
The Massachusetts Medical Society recently partnered with the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General to provide guidance to health providers in the state regarding how to discuss firearm safety with patients, and created a brochure for patients about gun safety as well.
The move reflects a national push by organizations such as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association to view gun violence and safety through the lens of public health. “We moved on this issue because of a ban in Florida,” says Gessner, referring to a law in that state that prevented doctors from talking with patients about gun ownership — such as whether there was a gun in the home and if it was stored securely. In February, a federal appeals court overturned that ban on free speech grounds noting that doctors routinely discuss everything from household chemicals to drugs, swimming pools as well as firearms — and that discussing guns didn’t infringe on the Second Amendment guarantee that individuals have the “right to possess and carry weapons.”
Recognizing the heated politics surrounding gun control, experts say it’s imperative that providers and patients are able to discuss gun safety in a manner that’s open-ended, so that as with alcohol, for example, parents can make decisions that suit their families. About one-third of Americans own a gun, and while there’s no hard figure, by various estimates, there are between 270 million and 310 million guns in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center.
Despite the ubiquitous nature of guns in modern society, clinicians note that research on risks of firearms finds the most proven way to keep kids safe is not to have guns where kids live. Keeping guns out of the homes where children live is still the safest option, says Dr. Judy Schaechter, who serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention. “The best preventive measure against firearm injuries and deaths among children is not to have a gun in households where there are children,” echoes Clinton Anderson, who is interim executive director of public interest at the American Psychological Association.
One option for gun owners who decide to remove a gun from their home but wish to keep the firearm — such as a gun primarily used for hunting — is to store it in a remote location. That could include keeping it at the home of another person who’s licensed to own a gun, in a secure storage unit or a bonded warehouse for gun storage, notes the patient brochure provided by MMS and the Massachusetts AG’s Office. But for those who prefer to have a firearm in the home for protection, health experts emphasize the importance of safe storage.
[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids’ Health.]
“We try to encourage families — if they feel like they have to have the gun at the ready — to have a gun safe,” says Dr. Michael Hirsh, a pediatric trauma surgeon and a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and medical director of the division of public health for City of Worcester. The gun should be unloaded and ammunition should be kept in a separate locked container. This could be accessed quickly, such as with a push pass code, Hirsh says, while reducing the likelihood a young child could happen upon it accidentally.
Keeping Kids Safe
Counseling young kids about being safe around guns — not picking them up, never pointing them at others, always assuming any firearm is loaded and telling an adult — is still recommended. But experts say there’s no data to show that this will reduce the likelihood of injuries or even fatal accidents. “High quality research investigating the effects of training kids to stay away from and not handle guns has found that such training does not work,” Anderson says. “Parents should be aware that guns are like Christmas presents — kids will find them no matter how well hidden they are.”
That makes safe storage all the more critical, experts say, as well as assessing risks within a home. “Sometimes parents may not understand the particular risks for a kid — that a 2- or 3-year-old is strong enough to pull the trigger, and it’s not hard to figure out where your finger goes,” says Schaechter, who is chair of the department of pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “An older child even who grows up with firearms may still have moments where they’re impulsive,” and may perhaps use the firearm when a parent’s not around to show off to a peer, she says. Adds Anderson: “If there are children or adolescents with mood disorders, substance abuse (including alcohol) or history of suicide attempts in the household, it would be very important to consult a psychologist and/or pediatrician about the removal of firearms or the restriction of access,” Anderson says. Hirsh points out that suicide attempts with a firearm are almost always lethal.
[See: The 11 Most Dangerous Places in Your Home for Babies and Small Kids.]
Schaechter also encourages parents to ask other parents of the children their kids will be playing with whether they have firearms in the home. “What you do with the answer depends on your level of comfort. [If the answers is yes] I know parents who will then say, ‘OK, can your kids play at my house?’ But there are other parents who will go further and say, ‘Well, how is it stored?'” She likens this to asking about any number of potential health or safety issues, from whether there’s a dog in the home, if a kid has a fear of dogs, to discussing a child’s allergies.
The point is not to make a blanket recommendation, experts say, but to allow the conversation to happen. “This should not be a taboo subject,” Schaechter says. She adds that most parents would do anything for their kids. “Almost every parent would sacrifice their life for their child. So why do we think that this is so off limits to talk about?” Experts say given the stakes involved with firearm safety — from risk of injuries to death — it shouldn’t be. “Because the consequence after the fact — none of us could live with that,” Schaechter says.
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A Prescription for Gun Safety originally appeared on usnews.com
