PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — With the U.S. Surgeon General declaring gun violence a public health crisis this week, the Pennsylvania Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics hosted an online community forum on strategies to prevent child firearm injury and suicide.
The CDC says hundreds of young children in the U.S. have been killed while playing with guns over the last two decades. The majority of the deaths are due to guns being kept unlocked and loaded.
Doctors with the Pennsylvania Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics stressed the importance of gun locks, gun ownership training and how to become an advocate for public policy to prevent unintentional injury and suicide by firearm among children.
Dr. Vivek Ashok, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said education must be paired with proper preventative safety measures.
“Children are curious, they are impulsive, they are in a stage of development, in which education needs to be supplemented by …