http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/parenting/06/04/boys.guns/index.html

CNN.com - Study: Boys who find guns will likely handle them - June 4, 2001

Study: Boys who find guns will likely handle them
June 5, 2001 Posted: 10:17 a.m. EDT (1417 GMT)

Over three-fourths of the study participants who found the gun
also handled it

By Rhonda Rowland
CNN Medical Unit

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Most young boys who discover a concealed firearm
are likely to handle it and even pull the trigger, new research suggested
Monday. The conclusion was immediately challenged by the gun lobby.
About half the boys said they did not know the gun was real, or were
unsure it was, the study found.
"About 90 percent of the kids in the study said they had been taught
issues of gun safety," said Dr. Arthur Kellermann, professor of emergency
medicine and director of the Center for Injury Control at Emory
University, who co-authored the study published in the journal Pediatrics.

"We also found that the child's interest in handling this handgun did not
match in any way with the parent's own perception of their child's
interest in guns. So a parent might say, 'Oh my child would never do
that,'" he said.
Researchers recruited 64 8- to 12-year-old boys from families who had
previously filled out surveys on firearm ownership and storage practices.
The boys were separated into 29 groups of two or three and spent 15
minutes in a room where they could be observed through a one-way mirror.
A real gun and two water pistols were hidden in two separate drawers of a
cabinet in the room. The real handgun was rigged with a radio transmitter
that could monitor if the trigger was pulled with enough force to have
fired a real weapon.

 ALSO

Maryland school district adds gun safety to curriculum

Key study results:
• 72% of test groups (48 boys) discovered a handgun
concealed in a drawer
• 76% of those who found the gun (30 boys) then handled
it
• In 48% of the groups, one or more member pulled the
trigger (16 boys)
• Approximately half of the 48 boys who found the gun
were unsure whether it was real

Source: Pediatrics

Accidental shootings
• 400 children die every year from accidental shootings
• 3,000 children receive non-fatal injuries
• 80 percent of these shootings involve boys

Source: Pediatrics

"Almost three-fourths of the children found the gun. Of those children
that found the gun, over three-fourths of those handled it, and that is
high risk behavior," said Dr. Howard Simon, pediatric emergency physician
at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, who also co-authored the study.
"Only one of the groups actually left the room without handling the gun to
tell an adult what they had found. Almost half the children that found the
gun, at least one of the children from each group pulled the trigger."
Simon said the families surveyed thought most children in this age group
would be able to recognize the difference between a toy gun and a real gun
and would avoid touching or playing with a real gun.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) found fault with the study.

"Upon analysis of this study, some glaring limitations came to light,"
said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. "One major limitation is the choice
of location for the study. The researchers chose a hospital -- a 'safe'
environment where research subjects would assume that if a firearm was
stored, it must be safe."
The researchers acknowledged this limitation in their report, but added
that a child might also assume a gun at home or at a friend's house is
safe to handle.
The researchers say their findings support the American Academy of
Pediatrics recommendation that the best way to prevent gun-related deaths
and injuries in children is the absence of firearms in homes and
communities.
"Every parent who chooses to keep guns in their home has, I think, a moral
obligation to store that weapon so that it can't be reached by their
children or anybody else's children," said Kellermann.
"There are many ways to do that. Personally, I would favor lockboxes as
opposed to trigger locks, but I feel that's a parental responsibility if
children are ever going to come into your house."
Studies show unintentional gunshots kill about 400 children in the United
States each year and injure another 3,000. Eighty-percent of the shootings
involve boys, and many of the accidents occur when a child discovers a gun
in the home while playing with a sibling or friend, the study said.
Kellermann said adults have a responsibility to store guns securely out of
reach of children He said it's not enough to simply teach children about
guns.
"The best known program in the country is Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program that
is sponsored and promoted by the National Rifle Association. And Eddie's
message is a good message: Don't touch, leave the area, and tell and
adult," said Kellermann. "The problem is, we don't have a clue whether
Eddie works or not."
In the study, just one of the 29 groups left the room without handling the
gun to tell an adult about finding it.
Kellermann said his team has approached the NRA to propose a scientific
study of its program.
"Firearm safety programs like Eddie Eagle play a significant part. But, in
dealing with children in this age group, parental involvement in
paramount," said Arulanandam. "While I agree that every parent should talk
to their children about guns and about the need to not touch them, leave
the room, and tell a grown up, they shouldn't assume that their child will
do the right thing for a moment," said Kellermann. "Boys are boys and
children are children and we should expect that they're going to be
naturally curious."
Surveys show about one-third of households in America have guns in them.

© 2001 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
An AOL Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved

I started handling my "gun" as soon as I dicovered it. CNN got that one right.

Gee, I wonder how many years it is going to take for him to "clean up" his raw data for release this time. I bet by the time he does that the numbers will be adjusted again, just like in his flawed "43 times more likely" dropped to "2.7 times more likely".



What happened to their "13 children per day" crap?

Maybe they finally stopped counting 19 year olds as "children."

Saw the news feature run on CNN, and towards the end the advice they gave was "The best way to prevent gunshot deaths in children would be to remove all the guns from neighborhoods and cities."  something to that effect.  sicking huh.  Couldnt even watch tv after that one.  I wanted to throw up.

NSF

The boys in the study were between 8-12 years old.  At that age, they should have their own gun and been trained on how to use it.  At 12 I had a Marlin .22 rifle, and kept it unloaded next to my bed.  Most of the boys in my neighborhood had guns.  The rest at least had BB guns, unless their parents took it away as punishment.  We all knew better than to handle a gun that was not ours, and never to pull the trigger.

How many of these 8-12 year-olds had ANY firearms handling experience of any kind?  The culture teaches them that guns are "bad", that guns are "cool", that guns give them power.  And they're surprised that the kids pick them up and pull the trigger?

Here's an interesting statistic: per the CDC for all children 0-12 years old in 1998 there were 74 (seventy-four) accidental deaths due to firearm injury.  Not 400 - 74.

For the same group over the same period there were [b][i][u]906[/u][/i][/b] accidental drownings.

"Accidental" shootings are primarily caused by teenagers - the same group who are irresponsible behind the wheel of a car.

Finally, in 1998 the TOTAL number of accidental deaths by firearms for all "children" 0-18 years old was 236.  In 1997 it was 275.  In 1996 it was 329.  In 1995 it was 385.  In 1994 it was 445.  Over these five years the AVERAGE was 334.  Further, the trend is [b]down[/b], drastically down, even though the total number of firearms in general and handguns in particular is [b]up[/b] dramatically.

The source for my statistics is the Center for Disease Control Injury Mortality Reports [url]http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html[/url]

Note how skillfully CNN slants the story - it asserts (1) that 8-12 year olds are unsafe around guns.  It asserts (2) that 400 "children" per year die of accidental gunshot wounds (thus implying to the ignorant that it's 400 kids under the age of 12).  Point 1 is somewhat factual given the sample group used in the study. Point 2 is false, unless you go all the way back to the 1994 statistic, but the [i]implication[/i] is the point they want to get across.  They pointedly do [b]not[/b] inform the public that the rate if accidental death is [i]declining[/i] [b]without[/b] gun control legislation [i]with[/i] an ever-increasing number of guns in circulation.

This kind of manipulation of the public is the stuff that [b][i]REALLY PISSES ME OFF!!![/i][/b]

[sniper]

Key word here is accidental...they still believe 13 kids a day are dying, but homicides and suicides and 19 year old gangbangers are all figured in.

My estimates according to CDC statistics would be more like 3 "kids" a day die by PEOPLE ILLEGALLY USING a gun. Of course they can't accept that a person would be responsible...must be some evil gun!!

I have heard on more than one occasion "13 children per day" being associated with accidents.

The cure for boys(or girls)handling firearms is for the Father of the family to take the little kiddies out to the woods(like in the "olden days")and let 'em shoot with no hearing protection at a water filled jug, thereby letting them understand the noise, the projectile leaving the gun, and the consequences of hitting an object or person with a speeding bullet...
I guarantee this will make a SERIOUS impression, favorable or otherwise, on the kids.
They WILL get the hell outta there if they find a gun.

The local police and a TV station did this same experiment about 2 years ago in Spokane. I think they had 16 kids , half with gun safety training. With parents and cops/TV watching through oneway mirror they let 4 kids into the room 2 w/training 2 without. Once they found the gun the 2 with training left to tell an adult the other 2 started to fight over who got to play with the gun ! Within seconds they were pulling the triggr and chasing each other around the room ! Needless to say the astonished parents could not believe whay little Johnny was doing! this happened in all 4 sessions and the parents agreed to send there kiddies to a gun safety course !!!!

More Junk Science from the lying left-wingers.  Check out this site that tracks junk science:

http://www.junkscience.com/

GunLvr

• 400 children die every year from accidental shootings

Since March 1 13 children under age 5 have died from drowning here in Maricopa County AZ.  Where is the hue and cry to ban swimming pools?

This is bullshit.

It's called "results oriented research" and it happens all over the country.  Emory U., if you will recall, is also the home of Dr. Bellesiles, the guy who wrote the rather ridiculous (and heavily criticized) book about early American gun culture being untrue.

The CNN people also described the test as the kids being sent into a room and told to wait, and that there were toys out for them to use.  Some of them were toy guns, as you could see in the video(multiple kids playing with toy guns, while one real one was mixed in), which would be extreme negligence by the parent or adult.  Store the real gun in a drawer under a bin of toy guns.  Yeah, realistic test.  I'm amazed any kids thought it was real.  I might have thought it was a toy(although I know how to tell, as any trained person or child would), since it looked like a little jennings POS mixed in with toys.

Where are the studies weighted to our side?

What are your ideas to make a weighted study to show guns are extremely safe?  Maybe wire a shock to the gun, so when they touch it, it hurts, and they run away.  Amazingly our test showed the average child wouldn't pick up a gun even when told to do so by an adult!

At 12 I was carrying a S&W 38 for protection aganist stray dogs or wild animals. I only wish the animals we have now wereall that we had then ,1960.

I wonder what percentage of boys would also handle booze, porn & drugs left in the room.

At my house? 100%.

Want to find out about yours? Unload one and leave it sitting out.  I did this one weekend and it never moved.  Neither of mine are curious because they shoot them quite a bit.

I'm just a young pup as it is, and i love to handle guns. My grandmother has a .357 that i play with; my father a 9mm i play with; and my mother a 9mm and a .25 i play with. I can't help it, but i'm not stupid so i don't point it a people, or myself for that much. I always unload and pull back the slide to make sure it is completely empty and even lock it open to make sure.

Mikie