Children often ignore what they learn at gun safety programs

the perspective of children who were accessing guns in their homes and accidentally shooting themselves, parents and siblings,” she said. “We wanted to see what educational strategies teachers and communities are using to teach gun safety to children, and how effective they really are.”

Gun safety training is essential, Holly said, because children in the United States have more access to guns than those in other developed countries and because most unintentional shooting deaths by children occur in their homes or at the residence of a friend or relative. Firearm injuries are the third-leading cause of death for all children aged 1 to 17 and are responsible for thousands of children being treated for open wounds, fractures and brain and spinal injuries. In addition, children who witness firearm injury can experience psychological effects, such as fear, anxiety and elevated stress. 

“Although programs that used active learning strategies, such as modeling, simulation or feedback, were slightly more effective at teaching gun-safety skills than programs that handed out literature, the majority still failed to teach the children to put what they learned into practice,” said Sallie Porter, assistant professor at the School of Nursing, who co-authored the study with Holly.  “Children are very curious – especially about things that they have been warned not to handle.”

Mary Kamienski, a professor at the School of Nursing, and alumna Aubrianne Lim, a registered nurse at Saint Barnabas Medical Center, also contributed to the study.

The researchers concluded that safe gun storage is the best way to protect children and adolescents from gun injuries. Their advice: Lock the guns up and make sure children cannot get the key or learn the access code, or better yet have a gun free-home.

“Gun safety education has value, but parents should not be complacent and feel comfortable that skills training alone will truly prevent their child from handling a gun,” Porter said. “Parents often overestimate their children’s cognitive abilities and underestimate their physical abilities. They are wrong to think that their 4-year-old can’t climb to reach the gun safe or that their child is developmentally mature enough to know not to handle a gun.”

— Read more in Cheryl Holly et al., “School-Based and Community-Based Gun Safety Educational Strategies for Injury Prevention,” Health Promotion Practice (10 May 2018)