Caregivers who brought suicidal adolescents to the emergency department reported safer gun storage practices after firearm counseling ― a crucial way to cut gun deaths among children, according to researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
In the study, which took place between June 2021 and Feb 2022, gun safety counseling and handouts were provided to 99 families of children who had come to the emergency department with mental health problems. A separate set of 101 families in similar situations received counseling and handouts, along with two cable-style gun locks.
Four weeks later, parents in both groups reported an increase in safe storage practices in which they locked away all guns in the household. Those offered only counseling increased safe storage by 7.2% ― from 89.9% to 97.1%.
The gains were greater for families that received locks in addition to counseling. The number of those who locked away all guns rose from 82.2% to 98.5% ― a 16.3% increase. (Roughly one third of families in both arms of the study were lost to follow-up, according to the researchers, which left 68 families in each group for analysis.)
Several caregivers in each group reported that guns had been removed entirely from the home, and more than 60% in each group said they had bought additional gun locks to secure their weapons.
