A new report, Children, Youth and Gun Violence, released by the Packard Foundation, reveals that education efforts targeting kids and parents, and the laws to punish parents who fail to store their guns safely, are inadequate in their ability to prevent gun violence.
The report said the easiest way to save young lives would be to make guns more “childproof” with built-in safety devices, although the gun industry has been slow to adopt these measures.
The most thought provoking aspect of the report is that children who received gun safety education were just as likely to play with a gun, and pull the trigger, as children who had not had the training. If true, then gun awareness training for children is NOT enough.
The report is not without controversy. The National Shooting Sports Foundation took issue with the report, claiming that the Packard report does not pass the reality test. Statistics seem to back up their claim – according to a Washington Post article on the story, the death rate from firearms for youths under 20 declined nearly 50 percent from 1993 to 1998.
The story is also covered in the Detroit Free Press.
