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Most children cannot tell real guns from toy guns
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ORLANDO, Fla. — Most parents and caregivers said in a recent survey that their children could tell a toy gun from a real gun. However, less than half of children could distinguish between them in side-by-side photos.
Researchers said the findings underscore the importance of safe gun storage, considering that one in three children live in a home with a firearm.
Over a 3-month period, Kiesha Fraser Doh, MD, FAAP, an assistant professor of pediatrics and an emergency medicine physician at Emory University School of Medicine, and colleagues surveyed almost 300 caregiver-child pairs visiting one of three pediatric EDs — two suburban and one urban — in the Southeastern United States. The caregivers were English speaking, and their children were aged 7 to 17 years.
One-quarter of caregivers were gun owners, and 79% were female. Gun owners were significantly more likely than non-gun owners to be white (P < .0001), have an annual income greater than $50,000 (P < .0001), and some college education (P = .0258). Additionally, gun owners were more likely to allow their children play with a toy gun (50% vs. 26%; P < .01), discuss firearm safety with their children (86% vs 58%; P < .001), and believe their children could correctly identify a real gun vs. a toy gun (86% vs 58%; P = .01).
Children, regardless of whether their caregivers owned guns, also felt confident that they could identify a real gun (79% of children of gun owners and 76% of children of non-gun owners). However, when children were presented with images of a real gun and a toy gun, less than half in both groups correctly identified the real gun. Regardless of gun ownership, more than 80% of respondents supported firearm safety legislation.
The researchers also noted that few caregivers (5.1%) felt their child could obtain a gun in 24 hours, whereas 14% of children whose caregivers owned guns and 4% of children whose caregivers did not own guns said they could obtain a gun 24 hours (P = .003).
Among the caregivers who owned guns — most of them surveyed at suburban hospitals — only 34% stored their guns locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition, which is recommended by the AAP. Furthermore, among children with guns at home, 53% knew where they were stored and 45% knew where the ammunition was stored, according to an accompanying press release.
“One of the most dramatic findings was how easily caregivers and children can confuse real guns with today’s realistic-looking toy guns,” Doh said in the release. “Especially considering gun owners surveyed were nearly twice as likely as non-gun owners to let their children play with toy guns, safe storage of firearms in homes where children play is critical.” – by John Schoen
References:
Doh KF, et al. A comparison of parental firearm storage patterns and children’s access to firearms. Presented at: American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition; Nov. 2-6, 2018; Orlando, Fla.
Disclosure: Doh reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Perspective
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Angela Renee Goepferd, MD
I think what was most striking about this study was that kids who live in homes where there are guns tend to be more educated about firearm safety and were more likely to have had conversations with their parents about guns, and the parents of those kids tend to feel more confident that their children can distinguish real guns from toy guns. Parents who live in homes where there are not guns feel less confident in their children’s ability to distinguish toy guns from real guns. But in both scenarios, parents overestimated their children’s ability to distinguish toy guns from real guns — significantly.
The real take-home message is that toy guns and real guns look very much alike. We cannot leave it up to children to distinguish a toy gun and a real gun, and it is really up to us to educate parents on firearm safety, specifically safe storage so that children are not encountering guns and having to decide whether it is real or not, because the study shows us that they do not know whether it is real or a toy.
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