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"Love Our Kids, Lock Your Guns"
A Community-Based Firearm Safety Counseling and Gun Lock Distribution Program
Tamera Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH;
Victor J. Schoenbach, PhD;
Renee M. Johnson, MPH
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2001;155:659-664.
Background Safer storage practices may reduce injury rates by limiting youth access
to firearms.
Objective To determine if a firearm safety counseling and gun lock distribution
program improved storage practices.
Design Community-based before-after trial.
Setting Urban county in central North Carolina.
Participants One hundred twelve adult gun owners recruited through a mass media advertising
campaign.
Intervention In the parking lot of a shopping mall, participants completed a survey,
and were then provided with tailored counseling, gun safety information, a
gun lock, and instructions to use it.
Main Outcome Measures Firearm storage practices, assessed by survey and personal interview
(baseline) and telephone interview (6-month follow-up).
Results Most participants were white (62%), men (63%), had children (58%), and
owned a gun for protection (74%). At follow-up, of the 82 participants, 63
(77%) (up from 39 [48%]) reported storing their gun(s) in a locked compartment
(P = .004), 59 (72%) (up from 0) reported using gun
locks (P = .001), 61 (74%) (up from 57 [69%]) reported
storing their ammunition locked in a separate location, 59 (72%) (up from
52 [63%]) reported storing their gun(s) unloaded, and 6 (7%) (down from 15
[18%]) reported storing firearms unlocked and loaded. Participants with children
were more likely at baseline to store weapons unlocked and loaded (38 [59%]
vs 19 [41%]; P = .02) but were more likely after
counseling to lock their weapons (29 [58%] vs 14 [44%]) and remove guns from
the home (5 [10%] vs 0 [0%]).
Conclusions This program prompted reporting of safer firearm storage practices,
particularly among parents. Longer follow-up, verification of self-reports
and correct use, testing of gun locks, and monitoring firearm injury rates
after distribution programs are needed to establish the public health potential
of this approach.
From the Departments of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine (Dr Coyne-Beasley),
Epidemiology (Dr Schoenbach), and Health Behavior and Health Education (Ms
Johnson), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Corresponding author and reprints: Tamera Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH,
Department of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 7225, Wing C, Medical School, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7225
(e-mail: coybea{at}med.unc.edu).
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