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4-year-old Lake… likes
to play with his toy guns.
But the real guns are off-limits, locked up, and out of sight…
“I am not a hunter,” says his father Gary Dodson, “I
really am not a gun fanatic. I have them here for my family’s
protection and it’s just something I’m not going to
share with my child.”
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association,
only 20 percent of gun-owning parents in america keep their guns
locked up.
80 percent don’t!
“If you have small children, understand that you can’t
be too safe… you can’t lock it up enough, you can’t
unload it enough,” says safety specialist Pat Wilder with
Safe America Foundation.
Experts say some gun-owning parents make two mistakes.
First: Thinking that it’s enough to hide a gun somewhere
in the house…
“Kids are naturally curious,” says Psychologist Bob
Simmerman, Ph.D., “And if there’s a gun that’s
not locked up and not safely put away… they’ll find
it.”
Next… the research shows… most parents believe
if their kids find a gun, they won’t play with it because
that’s what they’ve been taught.
But the research shows, half the kids will play with it anyway.
“You can preach it every day, every hour of the day, and
it’s not going to keep your child safe if they find a gun,” says
Wilder.
Gary says that’s why he’s taking no chances…
“I’ve made a conscious effort about how I store them
and keep them under lock and key since he’s been… at
least since he’s been able to move around.”
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