Martha Wheeler and colleagues Jo Cavins and Cindy Benson offered tips on storing guns safely in homes with children at “Boo at the Zoo” last week.
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
Martha Wheeler doesn’t use the word “accident” when she talks about children injured or killed by guns. Instead, she calls those tragedies “unintentional.”
The difference is at the heart of the message of Be SMART, her educational campaign to help parents protect their youngsters from guns they keep at home. When a child can get his hands on a loaded weapon, the tragedy that can follow doesn’t meet the definition of an unexpected or chance occurrence. It’s the unintentional but heart-breaking outcome of failure to take simple steps to keep him safe.
Martha, a retired music teacher who lives in Moorhead, is part of a volunteer corps of advocates who are sharing the message they call “Be SMART.” Developed by the national advocacy group Moms Demand Action, their message has one laser-sharp focus: Weapons kept at home must be stored, locked and unloaded, with the ammunition kept in a separate spot.
It’s a growing challenge. In 2020, gun sales increased 64%, while kids were already spending more time at home during the Covid pandemic. Each year, some 360 American children under the age of 17 gain access to a gun an unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else. At the same time, nearly 700 children of the same ages die by suicide, most often with a gun they found at home.
Martha and her fellow volunteers have been carrying the solution to that problem to school groups, service clubs and other gatherings around the community, including the unexpected; last month they offered tips and free gun locks to parents at the Red River Zoo’s weekend “Boo at the Zoo.”
Be SMART guidelines are intentionally nonpolitical and nonjudgmental. She stresses that point: “We don’t oppose gun ownership. We have members who have guns in their own homes,” she says. “What we want to do is make parents aware of what they can do – easily and at no cost – to keep their families safe. It can make all the difference.”
SMART is an acronym for the five points the volunteers share:
S – Secure all guns in your home and vehicle.
M – Model responsible behavior around guns.
A – Ask about unsecured guns in homes your child visits.
R – Recognize the risk of guns in suicide.
T – Tell your peers to be SMART.
“Hiding your gun from your children putting it on a high shelf or in a drawer doesn’t protect them,” Martha explains. “Children are curious, and they’re smart. Most know where they’re kept. They find them.” One-third of kids in those homes report they have handled the weapons, often without their parents’ knowledge. She said, “Even kids who have gone through a gun safety class report handling one at home without a parent present.”
Instead, she urges parents to prevent unsupervised operation. A cable lock can prevent the weapon from being fired. Keeping its ammunition in a separate secure location is also essential.
“We have a tremendously deep gun culture in America – unique among our peer nations,” she notes, adding that Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed with a gun than their counterparts in Canada, France, England or Germany. “Eliminating all guns from homes isn’t a reasonable goal. Instead, our focus has to be on reducing unintentional injuries and death by providing information and steps for safe storage.
“We believe that most gun owners really do want to be responsible,” the volunteer observes. “They don’t want their kids to have unsupervised access to their guns. Be SMART is an approach that can work for everyone.”
