QOD: Why does my pediatrician ask if I have a gun in my home?
As pediatricians, we care deeply about the safety of your child. Just as we ask about car seats, smoke detectors, and child proof locks, many pediatricians will also ask about the presence of guns in the house.
In the United States alone, nearly 500 children die each year from accidental gunshot wounds, with another 7,500 children hospitalized for non-fatal wounds. If we can educate parents on gun safety, perhaps we can decrease this number and save a life.
If you have a gun in your home, you can keep your child safe by always keeping the gun unloaded and locked up. Be sure to store and lock the bullets in a separate location from the gun itself. Also, hide the keys to the locks so your child is not tempted to peek inside the boxes.
Reviewed by Dr. Eva Benmeleh, September 2020
My husband owns a gun and it has always been locked in a safe. The keys are hidden but the bullets are in the same safe. I like the idea of keeping them in a separate place. I will definitely bring this up to my husband and move them to another smaller safe that we have.