A five-year-old child in Winston County is dead. Accidental gunshot wound is the cause.
According to a new report from the Children’s National Health System, 20,000 American children will be rushed to the emergency room this year with a gunshot wound and half of those suffer some disability due to the wound. Firearm-related injuries are leading causes of injury deaths for youths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Younger children are more likely to be victims of unintentional firearm injuries; the majority occur in the home.
Parents and guardians can protect their children from guns in the home without giving up their 2nd Amendment right to guns. You’ve got a constitutional right to own a gun, yet each parent, grandparent and guardian has a responsibility to teach children gun safety and keep guns away from children.
The Winston County Sheriff's Department supports free trigger safety locks and will provide ones when requested (check with your area law enforcement on the availability of free trigger locks). Trigger locks are one best way to curb childhood injuries and death. I urge everyone not to have a false sense of security about the gun in the home and to get the free trigger safety locks.
Firearm safety education along with safe storage of weapons in a sturdy lockbox or gun safe is the key to maybe saving a child's life. Teaching gun safety is necessary if you feel the need to fulfill your right to own a gun you must fulfill your responsibility to protect the young persons around you. When almost 20 children a day enter hospitals around the country due to gunshot wounds, each of us has a responsibility to do more than to tell a child "oh, don't touch that gun", and for teenagers gun safety must be preached and taught.
As a community, each of us should resolve to have a gun safety talk with the children in our lives and pickup those gun locks. Each of us should do all in our power to better to protect our children.
