Gun Safety Education

Gun Safety Education

In a speech to the Economic Club of Detroit in May 1999, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., committed to speak on the issue of gun crimes each week that the Senate is in session. This is the 243rd week he has continued to live up to his pledge; his remarks follow:

Mr. President, high profile school shootings across this country in recent years have focused the nation's attention on easy access to guns by children, especially in the home. Each day in the United States, an average of 80 people die as a result of homicide, suicide, and unintentional injuries that involve a firearm. Even more tragically ten of those who die everyday are children. The epidemic of firearm violence affects us all.

Steps to Prevent Firearm Injury In the Home (STOP 2), developed by the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, supplies health care providers across a wide range of disciplines including nurses, social workers, psychologists, health educators, and counselors, with the tools to educate diverse populations about the dangers of guns in the home and proper gun storage. Health care providers routinely discuss ways to prevent many types of injury, such as using child car seats, wearing bicycle safety helmets, and locking up prescription drugs. STOP 2 helps health care providers incorporate firearm injury prevention along with these other safety messages. Health care providers, as important messengers of health and safety information, are able to speak with patients and their families about the dangers of guns in their own homes as well as the homes of relatives or friends they visit. The program also assists health care providers in alerting families to the typical warning signs of gang involvement and suicide, and outlines action steps that can help prevent these possible tragedies.

STOP 2 expands on the original STOP program, which was launched in 1994 as a joint effort of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (CPHV) and the American Academy of Pediatrics. STOP was designed specifically for pediatricians. STOP 2 broadens the program's scope to include other health care providers and health educators who work in a wide range of disciplines with diverse populations. With funding through the Metropolitan Life Foundation, CPHV is providing STOP 2 kits free of charge to the health care community. Health care providers can request a free STOP 2 kit that contains patient/client brochures, waiting room posters, and other gun violence prevention information, by contacting the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.

I commend all of those who fight gun violence through safety education. Their common sense approach provides parents with practical steps to help protect themselves and their families from tragedy. I am hopeful that the 109th Congress will do more to support their efforts by taking up and passing sensible gun safety legislation.

http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=259165