Cleaning out the closet

A 16-year-old boy found the key to his father's gun cabinet, loaded a handgun, went out to the woods behind his house and took his own life.\nNow, nearly 18 years later, his sister, a mother of two young children, stores a rifle and shotgun in the walk-in closet connected to her and her husband's bedroom. The boy's parents still keep shotguns in the hallway closet with ammunition on the floor below.\nAll of their children may have grown up and moved away, but now their grandchildren are beginning to explore the house and could easily happen upon the guns stored in the same place as winter coats and the vacuum cleaner.\nGranted, there has been an 18 percent drop in gun accidents and a 13 percent drop in gun suicides among children 0-19 years old, as reported by the Center for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics in October 2001. But that's no reason to feel any safer about having firearms stashed away in the closet on a kid's level.\nThe National Institute of Mental Health reported that in 2000, suicide by firearms was the most common method for both men and women, making up 57 percent of all suicides. It doesn't say how many of those guns were made available by their own family members.\nThe argument could be made that if a teenager wanted to commit suicide, simply not having a gun in the house wouldn't be enough of a deterrent. He or she could easily find another means of completing the act. But why encourage troubled teens by making available the most horrific method of suicide?\nThe media is continually reminding us of how easily accidents can happen; when children barely old enough to go to school find guns and get curious. Thirty-four percent of children in the United States live with at least one firearm in their house, according to a research analysis conducted by RAND Health. Fewer than half store their firearms unloaded, locked, and away from ammunition.\nShotguns and rifles used for hunting are likely not kept loaded in many homes. These are hard for young children to maneuver anyway, and self-inflicted wounds are nearly impossible.\nHandguns are more compact and are easily held by small hands. But aren't these the ones kept loaded by the nightstand, ready for self-defense? \nSome claim that familiarizing our children with guns is the best bet to protect them. If they know how to use them, they will be more careful. And then they can show off to their friends when Mom and Dad aren't home. Maybe they'll even teach their friends how to shoot. It's okay, though, because they have their own gun and Daddy taught them all about how a gun works.\nIt's impractical to hope that all guns would be kept out of the reach of children. But the RAND Health results make it clear that not even half of American families with guns make it difficult for children to use. \nEven in cases where the gun is locked, unloaded and stored separately from ammunition, there is no guarantee that children will not fire guns by accident or on purpose. Just ask the couple who lost their son 18 years ago.