Gun Safety: An Important Lesson for Children

Keeping our children safe is our number one priority as a parent. In today's society, that task seems to get harder and harder to accomplish. It has been estimated that there are firearms in at least half of all United States houses. That can make our job of keeping the next generation safe even harder.

Educating your children on gun safety is extremely important. Even if you do not have a gun in your home, they may find one at a friend's home or a family member's food that they visit. Having a firearm in your house can cause a significant risk of injury or even death if handled improperly. Firearm related injuries are a leading cause of death in children. That statistic includes deaths from unintentional injuries as well as homicide and suicide.

If your child is educated on gun safety, you can reduce the risk of injury from happening. Fear can cause injury as well so teaching your children to stay away from guns is a great starting place.

The National Rifle Association, or NRA, has a program called Eddie Eagle Gun Safety Program. This program teaches children from pre-K to third grade four important steps to take if they find a gun. They teach children to: Stop! Don't touch!! Leave the area and tell an adult!!

This program began in 1988 and has reached more than 20 million children in the United States. The program was developed through the combined efforts of psychologists, reading specialists, teachers, curriculum specialists, urban housing safety officials and law enforcement.

The NRA also holds basic training and gun safety classes to teach the safety principles and to help you develop the knowledge and skills one should have when a gun is involved. They hold these courses in all different areas.

Another program designed to help keep children safe is Project ChildSafe. This is the nation's largest firearm safety education program. Project ChildSafe reminds gun owners to:

Properly store firearms in the home

Practice safe firearm storage option in the home

Make certain that firearms in the home are not casually accessible to anyone, especially a child

Project ChildSafe is a nationwide program whose purpose is to promote safe firearms handling and storage practices among all gun owners through the administration of free gun locking devices. The program is supported by a US Dept. of Justice grant, The National Shooting Sports Foundation and is a component of the Bush administration's Project Safe Neighborhood. Project Safe Neighborhood is a comprehensive, strategic approach to reducing gun violence in America.

The basic rules of firearm safety, according to Project ChildSafe are:

Store ammunition separately from firearms

Treat every firearm as if it were loaded

Keep firearms unloaded when not in use

Keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction

Project ChildSafe distributes free gun locking devices to anyone that requests one. The device is a cable style gun lock that meets the American Society for Testing and Materials current testing protocol standards. Cable locks require that many types of firearms be unloaded before the lock is installed. This provides an extra bit of protection.

Since 2003, Project ChildSafe has distributed more than 35 million safety kits to gun owners in all 50 states and 5 US territories. They help law enforcement to promote firearm safety by providing educational materials as well as support services in addition to the free gun locks.

If you teach older children the right way to handle a firearm and educate them on the dangers of them, they won't want to experiment with them when you aren't home, like many children have done and gotten hurt, or hurt a friend in the process.

Parents need to accept responsibility to learn and teach gun safety rules. This is the best way to keep children safe. It is a known fact that when parents educate their children and show them the right way to do things, they stay safer, to a greater extent, than those children whose parents did not do these things. Children learn by example. With guns being an issue in schools and other places where children gather, it is even more important now to keep your children properly educated on gun safety. Teaching them the consequences of guns that are improperly handled is also something that should be stressed.

Television and video games today do not help out either. Smaller children may become confused when they see their favorite cartoon character get shot and then come back to life. This is the same situation with video games. Some games, you shoot or get shot at and then die. Two seconds later, you are back in action. That can get confusing for the younger set. Talking to younger children about the differences of television and video games and the real world is extremely important.

For more information on Project ChildSafe, go to www.projectchildsafe.com. For more information about the NRA and their Eddie Eagle program, go to www.nrahq.org