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Safe Gun Storage
July 8, 2010 Updated Jul 8, 2010 at 4:03 PM EDT


There are millions of homes in America containing two things that don't go well together: guns and young kids. According to new research, in the vast majority of those homes, the guns are not locked up. A study from Vanderbilt Medical Center cites that only 30 percent of gun-owning parents in America keep their guns locked up. Pat Wilder, a safety specialist with Safe America Foundation says that "if you have small children, understand that you can't be too safe. You can't lock it up enough, you can't unload it enough."
Experts say some gun-owning parents make two mistakes. First: thinking that it's enough to hide a gun somewhere in the house. Dr. Robert Simmerman, a child psychologist, adds that "kids are naturally curious. If there's a gun that's not locked up and not safely put away, they'll find it." Next, many parents believe if their kids find a gun, they won't play with it because that's what they've been taught. "You can preach it every day, every hour of the day, and it's not going to keep your child safe if they find a gun," says Pat Wilder.
If you do have a gun in the house with children, safety experts advise that the gun be unloaded and locked with the ammunition locked in a separate location.

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