Study: Strict Gun Laws Cut Kids' Firearm Deaths

**gghbi** · November 17th, 2018, 01:16 PM

I was made aware of this today... https://www.webmd.com/children/news/...firearm-laws#1

It starts out with: FRIDAY, Nov. 2, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Kids are safer in states with strict gun laws, a new preliminary study reports.

Researchers found that the stringency of a state's firearm legislation has a direct impact on the number of kids killed by guns.

This is followed by some discussion of the details of the study which you may peruse at your leisure.

BUT>>>

The last part of the article is more interesting: Another research team presenting at the AAP conference found that most children can't tell a real gun from a toy gun by looking at it.

For the study, Dr. Kiesha Fraser Doh and her colleagues surveyed about 300 caregiver-child pairs visiting one of three pediatric emergency departments in the southeastern United States over a three-month period in 2017.

Only 41 percent of kids aged 7 to 17 could tell a toy gun from an actual firearm when shown side-by-side photos of both, the researchers found.

This is worrisome because the gun owners surveyed were nearly twice as likely as non-gun owners to let their children play with toy guns, said Dr. Fraser Doh, an emergency medicine physician at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Also, only one-third of the gun owners stored their guns locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition, as recommended by the AAP, the researchers found.

"Part of the messaging we would want parents to give their children is if they see a firearm, walk away," Fraser Doh said. If a kid can't tell a real gun from a toy gun by sight, they are more likely to go over and play with what turns out to be a real firearm.

Research presented at meetings is usually considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

This is an endorsement of the NRA Eddie Eagle program in in plain language, even if they don't want to admit it!

**sota** · November 17th, 2018, 01:25 PM

kids are also safer from molestation when prevented from going to church, but i don't see anyone rushing out to ban religion.

**Hodgie** · November 17th, 2018, 01:33 PM

Education is not sheltering kids from something that's dangerous, it's showing them what is dangerous, teaching them why and then how to handle it.

Since my son was 5 he could tell the difference between a real gun and a toy, he can also tell you ever working part on a Glock as it's broken down. This isn't because he is some prodigy, it's because I made sure he understands what it is, how it worked and that all sales are final once the trigger is pulled. My now 11 year old daughter knows as well and both have a health respect for firearms and know what to watch for when at someone else's house who may not maintain the same discipline I do with safety and storage.