RandyA

Wyoming leads nation in firearms in the home [/align]Associated Press
ATLANTA - About 1.7 million U.S. children live in homes that have loaded and unlocked guns, according to what is described as the first comprehensive survey of gun storage in homes across the country.
The study, published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics, found that 2.5 percent of children live in homes with loaded and unsecured firearms. Estimates from the early 1990s had put the percentage at 10 percent. The new results suggest a decline, but that doesn't mean there's cause for celebration, said Catherine Okoro, a study author.
"That's still too many children to be put at risk," said Okoro, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study is based on a 2002 telephone survey of about 241,000 adults and is the first to provide data on gun storage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, its authors said.
Nationally, 33 percent of adults said they kept firearms in or around their home. The highest percentage was in Wyoming, where 63 percent said they had firearms. The lowest percentage was reported in the District of Columbia, where 5 percent reported having guns at home. The district has long-standing bans on handguns and semiautomatic weapons.
A little more than 4 percent of the respondents nationally said they keep guns loaded and unlocked, and 2.5 percent reported having loaded, unlocked firearms in homes where children lived.
Alabama had the highest proportion - 7.3 percent - of homes in which children lived and guns were kept loaded and unlocked. The next highest states were Alaska (6.6 percent), Arkansas (6.6 percent), Montana (6.4 percent) and Idaho (5.2 percent). At bottom was Massachusetts, with 0.3 percent.
Researchers said they aren't certain why some states reported higher rates than others, but they believe people living in rural communities are most likely to have loaded guns in or around the house.
That wouldn't explain why Alabama is No. 1, however, said Jim McVay of the Alabama Department of Public Health.
"We have a hunting tradition in the Deep South, but there's no excuse for having loaded guns in the house," said McVay, director of the department's Bureau of Health Promotion & Chronic Disease.
Okoro said she hoped the survey results will be used by state public health officials as they work on intervention programs to prevent firearm deaths.
About 1,400 children are killed by firearms each year, according to CDC estimates. It's not known how many of those are killed by guns left around the house, the researchers said.
But they said a study published in a February issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed safe gun storage may prevent deaths. The Seattle-based study found that in homes with guns, there were fewer incidents of shootings when guns were kept locked, unloaded and separated from ammunition.

Vapodog

Are we to assume that that many people told a telephone interviewer about firearms they had in the house????? I'm astounded that anyone would admit to anyone they didn't know well about the status of firearms in their posession or home.

eldeguello

IF the doctors would stick to curing patients, and keep their noses out of things that are none of their business, we'd all be better off!

What they NEED to be doing is figuring out how to keep medical costs down!

"IF I had any guns, they would all certainly be UNLOADED and locked up in a safe!"

wyomingtrapper

"That's still too many children to be put at risk,"

How many children die in auto accidents each year? More kids drown in bathtubs and 5 gallon buckets each year than are killed in accidental shootings. I agree that it is poor judgement at best to keep loaded firearms, unlocked, in a home with kids, but the fact is that kids that are around guns and shoot them commit less violent crimes than those around them who don't shoot, who have a lower violent crime rate than those who aren't around guns at all growing up.

Knightia

Ya who would be answering these phone surveys?I dont know. But i bet those with the lowest figures -DC- dosnt report all there ilegal firearms knowen to be there.
Knowen to be there based on fbi& other stats on very high numbers of gun crimes in DC.

But if these Dr,s etcwant to know how many ppl are wounded with intent or otherwise- they dont have to do a survey of the number of guns owned per household- those stats they are involved in& avalable to all, as are the crime rates peretc .

I have a hint for them we may have a lota guns& few antigun laws& restrictions - but our crime rate is pretty low- lower the DC,s where there own flawed stats& info says firearms barely exist in any numbers at all& they have plents of gun control laws already.

cayugad

Granted ... loaded guns and kids do not mix, and might not bea good idea but in this day and age, loaded guns are more and more common in American households. I still think it boils down to how you raised your kids as to whether they are at risk. When I grew up we had guns in the house. They were not under lock and key. Everyone in the houseknew it, we knew where they were, we knew what they could do, we even knew how to use them for the most part. Most important was, we also knew that if we messed around with them the punishment would come sure, swift and severe.

That is one reason I always felt that hunters safety, or at least gun safety should be taught in public schools. When people argue, we do not allow firearms in our home and do not want our children exposed to them, I respond that in this day and age there will come a time when your children might be exposed to them. The setting that happens in can vary. At least when it does happen they will be informed as to the proper way to handle the incident.

As for people crazy enough to answer a telephone survey or even a in your face at the door survey as to whether or not they owned firearms and if they were in the house would get the world's fastest hang up or door closed in their face in my household. And this is not because I have something to hide or am ashamed of the number of guns I own. I just do not feel it is the business of anyone other then myself.

Whether or not gun ownership and guns in the home have a direct correlation to the current crime rate found in an area, I could not say. I would suspect that the crime rate might be more influenced by the population density of a given area, the poverty rate of that area, law enforcement levels and other social influences such as drug use density figures and even overall education levels of the area. Of course a weapon in the home could influence a perpetrator and their decision to commit a crime against you.

Knightia

I think loaded guns where also commen in the home in the past.(im not saying ppl should leave loaded guns around though for young children to get to either)

But i think your right hunter safety *& gun safety programs are a good thing& parenting etc too.Many variables as you say.

Also Many variable in stats& figures& how they can be used& minipulated to(and seen)( the antigun crowd shows us this too) to a agenda& cause etc.

The above says Wy has a high percent offirearmsto overall house hold numbers?Does it say anywhere we have more deaths because of this?
safe guns&no guns will make it all better?

Or would that be like saying if you didnt get in a car as a passinger or driver you probwouldnt be included in the great number of road/car related deaths per yr& those stats?

Many ppl in citys dont even own cars.They have no guns- they should live forever.