The level of gun ownership in our country is astonishing. The Washington Post estimated in 2018 that the U.S. has “more guns than people — 393 million guns for 326 million people.” In 2017, the Gallup organization “found that 42 percent of American households reported owning guns,” according to the Post.
This means there’s a 4 in 10 chance that a home you visit has a gun in it.
And here’s another thing to think about: a Chicago Sun-Times recent feature article was titled, “Guns are leading cause of death for children.” Sadly, such deaths too often result from lax or non-existent safe storage of guns in the home.
These sobering facts have important implications for parents, teachers, health-care professionals and others. It has become imperative that parents and their kids, with consistent help from educators and medical practitioners, make sure that they’re asking questions critical to the safety of all concerned.
For example, do you, as a parent, know if the home your child is visiting to play with her friend has a gun in it? If it does, is it safely and securely stored in a way that no child can retrieve or find it? Do you even ask the question? Remember that 4 in 10 likelihood.
Does your child babysit? Is a question about guns and, if present, safe storage of those guns in the home part of the vetting you and your child do to assess a babysitting job?
Are teachers even bringing the topics of guns in the home and their safe storage up?
Are medical professionals — who so frequently ask us, “Do you feel safe in your home?” — asking about guns in the home and any feeling of danger about their presence?
Are the judges who hear pleas for orders of protection automatically asking the plaintiff about guns in the possession of the offending person and ordering removal of those guns upon granting an order of protection? How else to protect the plaintiff and the children in the mix?
This all might seem obvious, but it obviously is not since, as I’ve noted, “guns are the leading cause of deaths for children.”
I don’t wish to set neighbor against neighbor. But I do mean to say to gun owners that before your neighbor asks you the question, you might have a good answer at the ready so that a conversation about your guns does not become a confrontation.
Let’s make sure, in this day and age, that all kids are safe in homes — and that any guns in those homes are safely and securely stored.
Ed McDevitt is a River Forest resident and a member of Gun Responsibility Advocates.