Pediatricians should talk with parents about guns and their children.

This study is a loud and compelling call to actionfor all pediatricians to start open discussions around firearm ownership with all families and share data on the significant risks associated with unsafe storage. It is an even louder call to firearm manufacturers to step up and innovate, test and design smart handguns, inoperable by young children, to prevent unintentional injury," Dr. Parikh and colleagues continue.The Children's commentators point to the "extremely dangerous" combination of "the small curious hands of a young child" and "the easily accessible and operable, loaded handgun" and suggest that pediatricians who counsel families about safely storing weapons tailor messaging to the weapon type and the family's reason for owning a firearm.For moreclick here.Editor's note:There are more than 393 million guns in circulation in the United States — approximately 120.5 guns for every 100 people.1.7 million children live with unlocked, loaded guns - 1 out of 3 homes with kids have guns.In 2015, 2,824 children (age 0 to 19 years) died by gunshot and an additional 13,723 were injured.For moreclick here.
Source: Markham's Behavioral Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: blogs