Firearms are now the#1 causeof childrens deaths in the United States.
Gray was arrested and charged with murder.
Colin Gray is not the first parent to be charged for a school shooting carried out by their child.
Themajority(54%) are suicides, according to a report from the Pew Research Center.
These attacks loom large in our collective fears, particularly since so many of the victims are children.
The reality is that most children are more likely to encounter a weapon in their own home.
Parents can take steps to reduce the risk of children being hurt by a firearm at home.
Parents gun safety practices dont necessarily follow the patterns you might expect.
Training and education shouldnt replace safe storage, Paruk said.
One reason is suicide prevention.
Some parents who own guns are speaking out about safe storage.
There are three handguns in her home.
Both safes are bolted into the shelving, Thomas told HuffPost.
Of her two daughters, only the 15-year-old has handled a gun under parental supervision at a firing range.
The process was controlled and deliberate.
This normalization of guns can seem foreign to folks from the bluer parts of the country.
There, he said, guns were not a part of life.
He also noted that Minnesota has background checks and other safety measures that some other statesdo not.
Bens weapons are stored in safes, separate from ammunition.
Gun safety requires parents to acknowledge their blind spots.
Parents arent the only ones wrestling with when and how to speak to their children about guns.
Pediatricians are also expected to talk about gun safety with families especially now that firearms are now theNo.
1 causeof childrens deaths in the United States, after surpassing motor vehicle accidents in 2020.
Janine Zee-Chengis a pediatrician in Indiana, which has a relatively high rate of gun ownership.
Unfortunately, they have foundthat many families do not abide by these precautions.
A lot of people around here have guns for home security.
They want immediate access, in case theres some threat to them or their property.
We have a hard time remembering that our children are not extensions of ourselves.
Our children are not always able to make the mental jumps that we are as adults, Zee-Cheng said.
Paruk echoed this sentiment.
That exercise may reveal potentialblind spots.
The onus to keep kids safealwaysfalls on the shoulders of adults, Thomas said.
This article originally appeared onHuffPost.
