Children are at high risk for firearm injuries, and pediatricians can play a role in reducing those dangers by having frank conversations with parents about firearm safety, according to a new study.
The research, led by Children’s National Health System, found that guns are present in between 18% and 64% of U.S. homes, with the likelihood of gun ownership varying by geographic region, and parents are likely to think that their guns are stored more safely than they actually are. Nearly 40% of parents falsely believe their kids are unaware as to where guns in the home a stored, and 22% falsely believe the children have not handled loaded weapons.
In one of the surveys the Children’s National team reviewed, 16% of 300 adolescent emergency patients reported they had a gun in the home, and 28% said they could access a loaded gun within three hours. About 20,000 children each year are treated in the emergency department for firearm injuries.
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These statistics underscore the important role that providers can play in curbing the risk of firearm injury in children, according to the researchers. They found that many parents are willing to have these conversations. Some providers even offer gun-safety devices, senior study author Monika Goyal, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Children’s National, said in an announcement.
“The stark differences in how parents perceive their children would act and the children’s own recollections to researchers underscore the importance of the combination of counseling parents to talk to their children about firearms and instituting safe storage practices for household guns,” Goyal said.
“We want to empower pediatricians&hospitalists to get involved w/ reducing firearm-related injuries to kids in this country,” - Dr. Parikh https://t.co/jNjwPYAAPd
— Children's National (@childrenshealth) May 23, 2017
In a supporting commentary, Michelle Sandberg, M.D., of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California, and Nancy Wang, M.D., of Stanford University, offer five “Ls” that can help doctors navigate conversations about firearms safety: Locked, Loaded, Little, Low and Learned.
They suggest physicians ask parents whether their guns are locked away, stored appropriately, and kept loaded. Also ask if there are little children in the house, or if any member of the family is feeling “low” and is a potential risk for suicide. Assess how well informed gun owners are about firearm safety.
The authors added that these conversations must begin early with parents, ideally before very young children can walk.
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There are barriers to having these crucial conversations, the authors noted. For example, some states, like Florida, have enacted laws that are designed to protect the privacy of gun owners, despite objections from pediatricians, and that can put these dialogues on uneven legal footing. A recent appeals court ruling, though, has opened the door for doctors to ask about guns in the home, as FierceHealthcare has previously reported.