Children and Gun Safety

Are you a gun owner with children in the house? Do you have your firearm safely secured away from your children? According to reports, some 900 children are seen at hospitals for accidents pertaining to guns. These accidents could be prevented with just a few simple steps.

About one in three families with kids keep at least one gun at home in the United States. Safe Kids says that’s nearly 22 million children exposed to handguns, rifles and shotguns.

What’s even more alarming is that experts say kids as young as 3-years-old are strong enough to pull the trigger of many handguns.

A federal law, called the Child Safety Lock Act of 2005" requires every handgun to have a storage or safety device sold with it. But it’s up to gun owners to enforce safety rules at home.

 

Child Bath Safety

GreatDad.com has some great child safety tips for giving your small child a bath, which is something that many parents worry about. The full list can be found on their site, but here are some of the most important tips:

-Protect your child from falling or hurting themselves on faucets and spouts by placing a towel over the sharp object.  We like the Boon Flo faucet cover for this purpose.

-Always check the temperature of the water before you bathe your child in it. It should never exceed 120 F. Very hot water can scald your baby while extremely cold water can lead to serious illnesses.

-Never leave the child alone, not even for a minute. Every year, several cases of infants drowning are reported even in very little water.

 

Missing Child Issue

The search for a missing Arkansas boy has shifted from searching the local woods and lake towards an abduction scenario. Since it couldn’t be proven that the child was taken, an Amber Alert was not immediately issued. Authorities in the area spent days searching the immediate woods and lake area where the child went missing and after turning up no leads, now believe the child may have been taken from his home.

If Dominick was taken by a stranger, his odds of returning home safely are slim, according to national studies on youth kidnappings. Forty percent of children abducted in "stereotypical kidnappings" are killed, and 4 percent are never found, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report from 2002. Stereotypical kidnappings involve a stranger or slight acquaintance who takes a child with the intent of keeping him, holding him for ransom or killing him.

Time is of the essence in such cases. Among abducted children who are ultimately murdered, 74 percent are dead within three hours of going missing, according to an oft-referenced report from 1997 by the Washington state attorney general.

"When it comes to abductions, to be honest, the first couple of days are absolutely critical," Browne said. "The timeline for recovering kids, it’s a sad kind of timeline."

 

Online Child Safety

Is your child or teenager a frequent social networking site user such as MySpace or Facebook? If so, have you put any rules in order to keep your child safe on those sites? Experts in the area suggest several different tactics to ensure that your child has a safe experience while surfing through social networking sites. The school district in La Crosse, Wisconsin went so far as to offer a course to help parents keep their children safe online.

The La Crosse School District and the Coulee Region Internet Protection Task Force will host a parent presentation Monday at Logan Middle School.

The presentation will cover the latest trends in social networking and help parents better understand safety measures available. The task force also will provide an update on what is happening in the area as well as on other trends.

Sedevie said the task force has worked on three Internet predator cases that started on a social networking site.

“The reality is we live in a technology-centered society, and we are educating our students to use technology in their education,” said Sue Peterson, community outreach coordinator for La Crosse schools.

 

Missing Child Series

Child safety service InstantAmber is currently running a missing children case series on their blog to highlight some of the more well known children who have gone missing over the years. Already profiled are Adam Walsh, Polly Klaas and Amber Hagerman. If you have ever wanted to read more on missing children, this would be a great place to start. From InstantAmber.com:

We will be writing about some of the case stories, which illustrate loss, bravery, and hope.  We at InstantAmber believe that every parent should be as prepared as possible for a missing child emergency.  If the unthinkable occurs, law enforcement has the best possible tool to safely recover the missing child.

 

Arkansas Amber Alerts

A heads up to those of you in Arkansas who get notifications from the Amber Alert system in the state. Police is reporting that some changes are going to be made:

The Morgan Nick Amber Alert System was among the first system in the country to allow state police to interrupt local radio and television programming in order to provide information about abducted children in danger.

Officials hope changes to the system will speed up the alerts.

 

Kansas Amber Alert

Officials in the state of Kansas are stepping up their awareness program for the Amber Alert system. The campaign, consisting of two radio ads and two television spots, aims to remind people about the existence of the Amber Alert program and also the wireless alert system.

"It is important the public know and understand the criteria for an AMBER Alert to be issued," [Kansas Attorney General Steve] Six said. "These public service announcements will help Kansans remember that law enforcement will only issue AMBER Alerts when they believe the public can help locate a child under 18 who is believed to have been abducted and in serious danger."

 

Call My Mom

Teenage kids are notorious for pushing their newfound freedoms to the limits, especially when it comes to getting behind the wheel of a car. While the child might not give a second thought to their safety, the nonprofit Call My Mom is here to help with your child getting behind the wheel of a car.

"If I can save a few lives, I’d be happy," says Debbie Carrigg, 45, CEO, president, and "major mom" of the nonprofit Call My Mom, which has distributed about 500 of the decals nationwide since June. Each sticker contains a unique code number, allowing anonymous tips to be quickly forwarded to the appropriate parents. Teenage trauma cases that Carrigg witnessed during an eight-year stint as an ER nurse helped inspire the project. "I’ve seen all of it," she says of those gruesome accidents. "There are a lot of memories playing out in my head."

 

Amber Alerts Unfunded?

Were you aware that the state of Utah does not have funds appropriated for the Amber Alert system? Currently the system works on tax deductible donations, but some would like to see that change.

“It’s worth discussing,” said Senate President-elect Mike Waddoups.  “I was unaware we didn’t fund it, but in a year where revenues are down, it’s hard to add a new program.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Murphy is against state funding.  He says Utah’s Amber Alert program, not tethered with abundant state regulation, is able to adapt to change and is thus more effective.  "If it’s put into statute, and there are laws tied to it, I’m worried we won’t be able to move as quickly, and I’ve seen that in other states," said Murphy.

 

Twitter and Amber Alerts

One of the newest web 2.0 technologies out there is a communication tool called Twitter. With Twitter, you can subscribe to what other people are saying, or their “tweets”. One of the greatest uses of Twitter has become news outlets using the network to spread the word of breaking news, or other entities doing the same. One great usage of Twitter is the official Amber Alert Twitter feed. As soon as an Amber Alert is issued, the system will let you know and you can help spread the word as well. If you are a Twitter user and are interested in following Amber Alerts via Twitter, then you can follow them at twitter.com/amberalert.