CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A recent survey by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago suggests that nearly half of Chicago parents with firearms at home are not storing their weapons safely.
The latest Voices of Child Health in Chicago report from Lurie Children’s asked 1,505 parents from all of the city’s 77 neighborhoods about steps they take toward firearm safety and how gun violence has altered their lives. The study found that 22-percent have firearms at home.
Among parents who owned firearms, the top reasons for keeping guns in their homes were for protection (77 percent), hunting or target shooting (32 percent), as part of a collection (14 percent) and for a parent’s job (11 percent). It was noted that parents could select more than one reason.
A vast majority of parents - 89 percent - added that their firearms are stored and locked. However, 46 percent said they stored their guns loaded, contrary to safety precautions. The safest storage for firearms is to keep them locked and unloaded.
Research has shown that having guns in homes where children and teens can access them significantly increases the risk of firearm death by homicide or suicide.
Additionally, the survey found the highest rates of gun ownership by parents were in Chicago’s Central Region (59 percent), including the Loop, Near North Side and Near South Side, compared with other areas of the city (18-30 percent). However, only 16 percent of parents who owned firearms in the Central region indicated that they stored guns safely locked and unloaded, compared to parents in other areas of the city (48-74 percent).
“We know that the very best way to keep children safe from guns is to not keep guns in the home. It’s also important for parents to ask whether guns are present in the homes of friends and family members where their children spend time,” said Matthew M. Davis, MD, MAPP, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Lurie Children’s, Executive Vice-President and Chief Community Health Transformation Officer at the Patrick M. Magoon Institute for Healthy Communities at Lurie Children’s and Chair of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Tragically, firearm accidents also occur when children are playing at a friend’s home and they find guns. The survey found that 80 percent of parents had not asked a friend’s parents if they had guns in their home in the last year.
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