What are high-risk situations with firearms?
Awareness of situations that can increase your child’s risk of exposure to unintentional firearms injuries may help prevent them. High-risk situations include, but are not limited to, the following: • accessible firearms in the home Parents often underestimate their child’s ability to gain access to the firearm in the house, or even the child’s ability to pull the trigger. Statistics show that 75 percent to 80 percent of first and second graders who live in a home with a firearm know where the firearm is kept. In addition, children as young as 3 may be strong enough to pull the trigger of a firearm. • accessible firearms at another home Even if your home does not contain a firearm, your neighbor, friend, or relative may have an accessible firearm in the house. • adolescent boys The majority of children, ages 14 and under, killed unintentionally by a firearm, are boys (76 percent). The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) considers homes with adolescent boys at a higher risk for uninten
