One-minute video can help kids be safer around guns
- An Ohio study used a short video to educate kids about gun safety
- Kids who watched it were more likely to alert adults when they saw a gun
- But it's not clear how long the effects of the video may last
HOUSTON, TEXAS – MAY 28: Luke Shelton, 7, picks up a handgun at the George R. Brown Convention Center during the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention on May 28, 2022 in Houston, Texas. “I believe the first and foremost thing children should learn, or anyone holding a firearm, is firearm safety. The first rule of firearm safety is that your finger should not go on the trigger until you are ready to shoot and I’ve taught my son that over the last 3 years. I’ve seen him be more disciplined in that than most of the people here. Now that he’s 7, I have no problem with handing him a fully loaded firearm because I am 100% confident that he will be safe,” said Luke Shelton’s father Chris when asked about allowing his son to engage with firearms. The annual National Rifle Association convention comes days after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas which left 19 students and 2 adults dead, with the gunman fatally shot by law enforcement officers. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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(NewsNation) — A new experiment shows that a simple one-minute video on gun safety may make a difference on how kids react if they see a gun.
Firearms are a leading cause of death of American children, and many of those deaths are due to tragic accidents where minors happen upon an unsecured firearm at home or some other location.
Researchers at Ohio State University tested a solution to this problem by enlisting the university’s police chief to make a one-minute video talking to kids about guns.
“If a child finds a real gun, they should not pick it up or move it. Instead, find an adult and tell them where it is located,” the chief says in part of the video.
The researchers showed the video to one set of kids; the control group saw an unrelated video. Then they waited a week and brought the kids to their lab for an experiment where they were asked to play in a room that included toys, games and two disabled 9-millimeter handguns.
Thirty percent of the kids who watched the video immediately reported to researchers they found a gun. Just 11% of the other group told the adults about the guns.
Kids who watched the gun safety video were also less likely to touch the guns and less likely to pull their triggers.
Kjaervik explained that one reason they chose to feature the university’s police chief in the video is that prior research had shown that people, especially children, tend to be more persuasive.
She cautioned that it may be difficult to draw long-term conclusions from the study.
“We don’t know if these kids are going to remember the study or the video several weeks from now, we only know that it lasts about a week,” she said.
But she argued that the experiment can show the importance of educating kids about gun safety.
“I think a next step would be to implement gun safety education with teachers or with police,” she said.
