It's still airsoft gun safety (and indirectly real gun safety) for the second day here. For this weekend, we need to have an open discussion about children and guns. For those who watch Diane Sawyer of ABC News in the USA,  they may be aware of the series about children and gun safety they had last month. But before we proceed, this is not about the political debate on gun control before it gets misconstrued as such. This is more about child safety.

In three videos, ABC News' Diane Sawyer presented the dangers of guns not properly stored away pose to children. A backgrounder on why there should be an emphasis on gun safety for children is that over 7,000 children are injured or killed due to guns each year, with 3,000 children dying of gun injuries on the way to the hospital as reported by MSNBC. In the ABC report, 1 in every three homes own a firearm in the US thus the possibility of a child finding a gun in the US is high, especially in the developed world.

In one experiment of the ABC, children were taught how gun safety and what to do when they see a gun, and this involves the Police teaching them why. This was followed up as Police left non-working/deactivated firearms mixed in toys or inside bags. The children who were taught not to touch the gun and report immediately did the exact opposite --- they held the guns and one even looked into the barrel of a pistol.

Here are the videos of the ABC News report. I don't know if it will make you cringe to see children handling the pistols carelessly or can do impossible things just to find guns:

If you worry about children having access to firearms, and even airsoft guns without adult supervision, than the videos will concern you. Even if airsoft guns are safer than real firearms, these still pose a danger to children, and a good number of eye injuries to kids is due to airsoft guns.

We always teach newbies before they play their first airsoft game that they should treat airsoft guns as real firearms and we are very strict at game sites implementing such. That same attitude should be the same outside of the airsoft field, and should continue at home where most of the injuries to airsoft (and firearms) are about kids finding loaded guns and shooting themselves or their playmates with it.

The simplest answer to such safety concerns is proper storage. Gun cabinets or even gun safes which can be locked and the key or combination always with the owner is highly recommended to owners (airsoft or real steel), when there are children who live at home. In terms of airsoft safety at home, gun racks are not recommended as these are open and can easily reached. Carelessly putting your airsoft gun under the bed, in the corner, or inside the wardrobe will never work as children will always find away to find that forbidden item. The best way, apart from banishing airsoft guns/real steel guns from the house, will always be keeping them under lock and key.

We always recommend for those in countries which do not limit access to airsoft guns to adults only, is that airsoft guns should be handled by children under the watchful adult supervision.  Even those shrink-wrapped airsoft products from Big Box stores, which are said to be the main sources of airsoft guns that are involved in injuries to children, should entail adult supervision.

At the end of the day, children will rarely get blamed for such accidents. Adults will be charged with negligence and that will cost money defending in court and worst cases jail time. Would you as an adult want that apart from an injured child?