Gun Safety For Kids

While most people think that children hardly ever find guns, research shows that if children are left in a room with a hidden gun, 75% of them will find the gun within 15 minutes or less. Should children be taught gun safety?
More and more children are dying due to firearm accidents now a days due to the fact that there is an estimated amount of over 300 million guns in America today. With that many guns you can arm every man, woman and child in America. With more guns showing up in America, the more likely your child will be to find one. While most people think that children will not do anything with a gun if they find one, there are still going to be those kids that will play around with it and wind up doing something that they will regret. Gun safety is a bigger issue than most people would like to believe. They usually just turn a blind eye to accidental gun accidents involving children, but what are they going to do when it happens to their child. Even though children dying from gun accidents is not the cause of the highest number of children dying in accidents, the matter of gun safety should not just be pushed aside.
The initial point that I want to bring up is the fact that guns are everywhere.
Most people do not know this, but there are at least 50 children that die from firearm accidents every year. According to the research, there are enough guns in America to arm every man, woman and child. That is more than 300 million guns. Now I cannot speak for you on this matter, but I do not know whether this is a bad thing or a good thing. The National Rifle Association (NRA) also reports that 50% of households in America have guns. Knowing this, it just makes me want to teach kids about gun safety even more than I already did.
On another point I would like to just shed some light on how often children die from accidental firearm accidents. In a span of 3 weeks there were 3 gun accidents, two of which resulted in a child dying. One accident occurred when a three year old boy was left in his parents’ car with his infant sister at a gas station while his father got out of the car to pump gas and his mother went inside the convenience store. After his parents got out of the car the young boy scrambled out of his seat, found a gun police say was left in the car by his father and fatally shot himself in the head. The next accident occurred with the death of the seven year old daughter of a Marysville police officer in Stanwood when a sibling found a gun and fired while the parents were out of their car. The third accident happened on February 22, an eight year old girl was critically wounded in a Bremerton classroom when a gun fired inside the backpack of a nine year old boy as he put it on a desk. Now with the knowledge of that last accident, I would just like to know exactly why a nine year old had a gun in his backpack in the first place. Equally important I would also like to talk about guns in the home. According to a 2006 study, 29% of households with children under 12 fail to lock up their guns. Statistics also show children are more likely to be killed at home. Ordinarily when you send your child to another house for a play date, you do not consider to possibility of the other house containing a gun. Then the next thing that you know, your child is dead and all you can do is mourn them. One example of this would be when Ann Marie Crowell lost her son due to an accident like this. Since then she has spent the past 15 years trying to save other kids, by urging parents to ask whether there are guns in the home before sending their kids for play dates. “I’m aiming for common sense, not sweeping political change.”(Crowell 3) Most people do not consider accidental firearm deaths involving children is all that big of a deal due to the fact that it does not occur as often as other things do; but what they fail to do is put themselves in the places of parents that have lost a child due to an accident involving a firearm. Now there are plenty of other examples that I can tell you about children dying from gun accidents, but I think that it is about high time that I got moving on to my next point.
Obviously I would also like to talk about how gun safety is a good idea for schools. “If guns are as accessible as is sex these days, shouldn’t kids be taught how to protect themselves.”(Clarke) There are two ways to prevent children from dying in gun accidents. One way is to child-proof the gun. And the other way is to gun-proof the child. Another thing is that you cannot just tell a child not to touch a gun. If you do that it is just like reverse psychology. Also, doing this tends to just make them even more curious about guns. Children should, repeatedly, be taught the following if they encounter any gun under any circumstances without adult supervision: Stop! Do not touch! Leave the area! Tell an adult! “Regardless of whether you have guns, there likely will come a time when your child is going to be in a house where there are guns.”(McClatchy-Tribune News Service) and besides would you not want be able to just send your child off to school where they can learn about gun safety rather than trying to find a place to take your child where you have to pay money for them to be taught about gun safety. Additionally, the younger and more interested your child is about gun safety, the more you should urge the necessity for gun safety. “The statistics make this pretty clear. It makes sense, then, for children of a certain age to learn how to act responsibly around guns.”(McClatchy-Tribune News Service) Children cannot be taught only on how to use guns properly, but also when it is ok to use guns. Otherwise we might have to deal with another school shooting.
All in all, this is why you need to teach your kids about proper gun safety. The importance of gun safety cannot be over emphasized. It is not a toy and it can kill even if the person holding the gun does not intend to kill anyone. “Guns represent power for people who generally have little. Power for $40 has to be tempting. But not just power to bully. Power to defend yourself as well.”(Causey) Especially since there are so many guns out there today or if you have gun in your home, then you need to teach your child about guns and what they can do. I mean you do not want your child sitting dead in a coffin in the grave or in the morgue do you?

Works Cited
Blackinship, Donna, and Doug Esser. "Death of Washington Boy Third Gun Accident in 3 Weeks." Newsday. 15 Mar. 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
Causey, James E. "Opinion: Should We Teach Kids Gun Safety?." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI). 23 Aug. 2009: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. http://sks.sirs.com
" 'Gun-Proof ' Your Child With Firearms Education." Journal Gazette. 20 Oct. 2009: A.9. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. http://sks.sirs.com
"Gun Safety a Good Idea for Schools." McClatchy – Tribune News Service. 15 May. 2009: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. http://sks.sirs.com
Szabo, Liz. "Guns in the Home Are Proving Deadly for Kids." USA TODAY. 29 May. 2013: p. A.3. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Cited: Blackinship, Donna, and Doug Esser. "Death of Washington Boy Third Gun Accident in 3 Weeks." Newsday. 15 Mar. 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. Causey, James E. "Opinion: Should We Teach Kids Gun Safety?." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI). 23 Aug. 2009: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. http://sks.sirs.com " 'Gun-Proof ' Your Child With Firearms Education." Journal Gazette. 20 Oct. 2009: A.9. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. http://sks.sirs.com "Gun Safety a Good Idea for Schools." McClatchy – Tribune News Service. 15 May. 2009: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. http://sks.sirs.com Szabo, Liz. "Guns in the Home Are Proving Deadly for Kids." USA TODAY. 29 May. 2013: p. A.3. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.