Daily HealthBeat Tip - July 05, 2007

Guns in the home

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

If guns are in the home, are families keeping them safe from children?

To find out, Robert DuRant at Brenner Children’s Hospital, part of Wake Forest University in North Carolina, surveyed nearly 4,000 parents in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada.    

“Only about a third of them reported that they stored firearms safely – unloaded, and locked – and that the ammunition was stored in a separate place and locked.” (10 seconds)

Families that own guns were much careful about young children and guns. But the more comfortable a family was with guns in the home, the less likely the guns were safely locked away.

DuRant says having unlocked firearms increases the risk they will cause unintentional injury or be used in a suicide attempt.

The study in Pediatrics was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: July, 05 2007