~On July 18, a 5-year-old little boy in Hamilton, Ohio, died after accidentally shooting himself in his family’s home. He got the gun out of his parents' closet.~

~A three year old boy from Vandalia, Ohio, died Tuesday, July 21, after apparently shooting himself in the face with a 9 mm handgun. He had found the gun under his parents' bed.~

First off, let me say that I am not a gun control advocate. I believe private citizens have the right to legally own firearms. I don't write this to invite debate on the topic of gun ownership.

This is to bring awareness to the fact that there needs to be better safety measures in the homes who mix both guns and children. I want to try to impress upon people the importance of storing your guns correctly--AWAY from innocent little hands...for their sakes, and quite possibly, for their lives.

I have heard people say many, many times that their children have had it drilled into their heads over and over to never EVER touch a gun. They are completely secure in the fact that their children would never succumb to the temptation because of their stern lecturing on the subject.

Well, I can tell you from first-hand knowledge that that does not work--at least not 100% of the time. My own parents owned a gun and kept it in my dad's bedside table. We had been told numerous times to never even open the drawer it was in, let alone touch the gun. My mother was very, very strict, and my brother and I both knew better than to ever disabey her.

But one day, she and our dad weren't home, so what did my brother and I do? We went to their bedroom and opened up that drawer, pulled the gun out and took turns holding it. Luckily for us, the clip was not in it, because one of both of us could possibly have been killed that day.

I saw a report once, years ago, on an investigative news program. In this report, they did an experiment on children and guns. They interviewed the parents of young children, asking them what they had taught their kids about guns. Every parent said that their child had been talked to many times about the danger of guns, and that they knew, without a doubt, that their kids would never touch a gun if they ever came across one.

The children were taken into a playroom equipped with hidden cameras, and a two-way mirror for parents to observe from in the next room. In groups of two or three, these kids were left alone to play. In one area, there was a toybox, filled with the latest toys. But included in these toys was a realistic looking fake gun.

As their parents looked on in horror, EVERY CHILD picked up that gun and played with it. Some of the parents broke down sobbing, realizing that their talks about gun dangers had not worked at all.

So, as I mentioned earlier, even if all parents talk to their children, it doesn't mean that 100% of the time they will listen about gun safety, and gun dangers. Even if it worked 99% of the time, are you willing to bet your child's life that they won't be in that last one percent?

PLEASE--don't put blinders on--Don't convince yourself that YOUR child would never touch a gun, because no matter how well-behaved your kids are, the bottom line is they are kids...and they don't have that sense of danger that adults have. They are naturally inquisitive. Don't assume that they couldn't cock the gun, and pull the trigger, even if they did find the gun--children know about leverage, too...

Tragic situations like the two deaths I mentioned above could have been avoided with a little effort.  There are many different ways of securing your firearms in your home:

1.  Buy a gun safe, and keep the key with you, or in a place that only you and your spouse know of.  Or buy one with a combination lock, either dial or electronic, just make sure the children don't know the combination.

2. Keep the ammunition or magazine separate from the gun--somewhere that you can reach it quickly if you need to, but away from the gun itself.

3.  Buy a trigger lock--a little device that fits on the trigger housing, and it has a key that unlocks it.

4.  Buy a cable lock--A cable that slides through either the barrel or the magazine well, and also through the top slide, making it impossible to chamber a round.  This is probably one of the safest portable devices you can use.