Nat’l Healthy Homes Month (4)

 

June is National Healthy Homes Month.

This week we’ve learned that it only takes 5 minutes to begin making our homes healthier. We asked questions to help find hidden dangers threatening children’s health that can be present in every home. And we reviewed the Eight Principles of a Healthy Home.

It should be obvious to everyone that firearms are not compatible with healthy homes. Whether they are put there by adults who simply collect them, use them for hunting or target practice, or feel the need to keep one close for self-defense, the fact is that whenever guns are discharged — in an assault or just as a threat — an act of violence has occurred. And engaging or experiencing violence is not healthy for any person, especially a child.

The mere presence of firearms in the house raises the potential threat level for violence, whatever its purpose for being there. Carefully consider these statistics on gun violence in America:

• One out of every three American children live in homes with firearms. 43% of these households have at least one unlocked firearm and 13% have at least one firearm that is unlocked and loaded, or stored unlocked alongside ammunition.

• In 2019, firearm-related injuries surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death for American youth ages 0-19. Firearm-related homicides and suicides in youth have both increased during the pandemic.

• According to CDC data analyzed and published in Pediatrics in February, from 2000-2019, roughly 60% of youth deaths from firearm injuries are homicides, 35% are suicides, and 4% are due to unintentional injuries.

• In 2019, according to the same study examining the epidemiology of pediatric firearm mortality in the United States, Black youths had a firearm mortality rate 4.3 times higher than that of White youths and a firearm homicide rate over 14 times higher than that of White youths. The researchers point out that “There is no biological plausibility for these disparities, but rather they are a reflection of racist systems and policies that perpetuate inequities in violent injuries and death. Firearm injury is a significant driver of racial health inequities among US youth.”

• Suicide attempts involving a firearm are more often fatal (91%) compared with those involving drug overdoses (23%). The increased risk of suicide is particularly striking for younger persons where guns are stored loaded and/or unlocked.

• In 2016, the rate of firearm deaths in children and adolescents in the United States was 36.5 times higher than the rate in other high-income countries, accounting for over 90% of all firearm deaths among all children 0-14 years old living in high-income countries.

 

Surveys conducted between 2002 and 2019 show that American teens are 41% more likely to carry handguns “at least one day a year” today compared to two decades ago. Amy Norton found some rather surprising trends in the research:

The researchers tracked handgun carriage among 12- to 17-year-olds between 2002 and 2019. At the outset, 3.3% said they’d carried a handgun at least once in the past year. By 2019, that had grown to 4.6%.

But the trends were not uniform: White teenagers reported the biggest increase in handgun carriage, while the rate declined among Black and Native American kids, and held fairly steady among Hispanic teens.

Meanwhile, patterns based on family income reversed: Twenty years ago, teens from the lowest-income families had the highest rate of handgun carriage. By 2019, that distinction went to kids from the wealthiest families.

Finally, there was an urban-rural divide that existed throughout the study period, but grew over time: By 2019, almost 7% of kids in rural areas said they’d carried a handgun, versus 3.8% of those in big cities.

 

The safest home for a child is one without guns. Research shows that not having firearms in the house clearly reduces the risk in all family members for unintentional injury and death, homicide, and suicide. For families that don’t heed the evidence, the American Academy of Pediatrics has a warning and some advice for keeping kids safe from firearms kept in the home:

If you decide to keep guns in the home, be aware that many studies show that teaching kids about gun safety, or to not touch a firearm if they find one, is not enough. You can reduce the chances of children being injured, however, by following import ant safety rules:

• Safe storage. All guns in your home should be locked and unloaded, with ammunition locked separately. Make sure children and teens can’t access the keys or combinations to lock boxes or gun safes. And remember not to keep loaded, unlocked guns in the car, or anywhere else on your property, either.

• Safe use. When using a gun for hunting or target practice, keep the safety catch in place until you are ready to fire it. Before setting the gun down, always unload it. As much as a child may want to take a turn shooting, this is not a good idea. No matter how much instruction you may give about how to safely shoot a gun, children are not capable or responsible enough to handle a potentially lethal weapon.

 

 

One more time: A healthy home is a home without guns. Read more from the American Academy of Pediatrics here and please share with family and friends what you’ve learned this week on The PediaBlog during National Healthy Homes Month.

 

source http://www.thepediablog.com/2022/06/23/natl-healthy-homes-month-4/