Editor’s note: Wimberley resident Meredith Davenport, M.D., obstetrician and gynecologist and mother of three children, will be our guest columnist for the next four weeks to talk about gun safety as summer begins and more kids spend time in homes. She has a lot of good information to share with readers so take a few minutes to absorb this timely message.
After dedicating more than two decades of my professional life to the safety of mothers and their children, I was shocked to learn that firearms have been the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S. since 2020.
Not car accidents. Not cancer. Not opioids. Firearms.
I was stunned to learn this statistic and equally relieved to learn that there’s something each of us can do, whether we own a gun or not, to make our community safer for all of our kids.
In 2021, a medical article introduced me to Be SMART, an educational program for adults to prevent child gun deaths. The evidence is clear, secure firearm storage can reduce unintentional firearm deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides among youth.
Today, about 4.6 million children live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked gun. According to 2023 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, seven children, age 17 and under, die each day from gunshot wounds, and many more are injured. While the majority are homicides, more than 700 are firearm suicides, and over 120 are unintentional firearm deaths. These numbers are rising.
A 2019 Secret Service study found that three-quarters of school shooters under age 18 acquired the firearm from the home of a parent or close relative. When guns are securely stored, it protects our kids and it also protects our schools.
The SMART program begins with, “Secure guns in homes and vehicles.”
If you choose to have firearms in your home, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends these steps to prevent child access: Unload all firearms, including chambered rounds Lock firearms securely Store ammunition separately from firearms, locked and out of reach In conversations across Hays County, the two most common reasons I hear for not locking up guns are the need for quick access in an emergency and the cost of storage devices.
There are many secure storage options currently available that provide access to a gun within seconds, while still preventing access by children. For example, the biometric handgun safe that we use costs about $80. It opens with a fingerprint, key or code and has a battery indicator that alerts when batteries are low.
Safes for rifles and other long guns vary in price, but biometric long gun safes can be purchased for under $200. Biometric safes allow owners to program multiple fingerprints so the gun owner can choose to program different fingers or from different positions.
If your safe uses a code, make sure your child doesn’t know it and can’t intuit it by guessing. If your safe opens with a key, make certain the location is absolutely secret and not accessible to your child.
It’s worth pointing out that as children grow older, it’s important to reevaluate if your guns are still securely stored. A cable or trigger lock might prevent access for a young child, but may not be sufficient to prevent access by older children.
As we wind up this first article of four, please remember this: secure firearm storage saves kids’ lives. If a child – your child, a neighbor, a schoolmate, a relative – has access to your home or vehicle at any time, take a moment to evaluate your current storage practices. If needed, make it a priority to make changes now.
Additional resources can be found on the Be SMART website, besmartforkids.org. Two other Texas-based programs also worth exploring are Keep ‘Em Safe by the Texas Department of Public Safety, safegunstoragetexas. com, and Lock Arms for Life, lockarmsforlife. org. While the approaches differ, the message is the same: secure firearm storage saves lives.
