Newspapers regularly report on young children who find guns in their homes, pick them up, and end up shooting either themselves or friends. Those opposed to gun control promote education programs as the way to prevent such tragedies. The National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle GunSafe program is a popular program for teaching children gun-safety skills.
A small study looked at whether these gun-safety skill programs really work. The 30 four and five-year-olds were divided into three groups. One group participated in the Eddie Eagle GunSafe program; another third participated in a training program using instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback; and a third had no training program.
The children who participated in either of the training programs were able to verbally relate the gun-safety messages. The behavioral program, but not the Eddie Eagle program, effectively taught children when in a supervised role-playing how to perform gun-safety skills. Unfortunately, none of these skills or knowledge were used when the children were in real-life situations.
In other words, children this young are just too fascinated with a gun to remember or use the gun-safety skills they had learned. Parents must take responsibility for unloading all guns and locking them up so their children can't get them.
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