National ASK Day to Focus on Lifesaving Message
June 21, 2006
Contact: Todd Harper
Phone: 317-630-7808
Pager: 317-310-5972
Indianapolis, June 21, 2006 – On the first day of summer, a 15-year-old was killed in what police are calling an accidental shooting. Bradley Dill was shot in the chest by a 16-year-old while playing with what he thought was an unloaded gun.
National ASK Day (Asking Saves Kids) set for today, the first day of summer, is a yearly event designed to highlight the importance of parents asking if there are guns in the homes where their children play. Parents ask all sorts of questions to protect their children when they go play at the home of a friend, neighbor or relative. But there is one important question that more than half of parents say never even occurs to them to ask: “Is there a gun where my child plays?”
Nationally, over 40 percent of homes with children have guns, many kept unlocked and loaded. In Indiana, 49 percent of the homes own firearms. Nationally, over 3,500 children under the age of 20 are killed each year by gun violence.
Violent crime in the U.S. is on the rise, jumping 2.5 percent in 2006, the largest gain since 1991. Marion County has seen a similar increase, with 57 homicides reported in the first four months this year.
"Gun Violence is affecting our youth on an epidemic scale and gun safety must be addressed on a national level, said Clark J. Simons, MD, attending surgeon, IU/Wishard Level I Trauma Center and assistant professor of surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine. “ASK Day is an excellent opportunity to bring this important need to the front of the community's consciousness.”
Eight children are killed and 33 wounded from guns every day, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, statistics that are unmatched across the developed world.
“Just talking to your child about the dangers of firearms is not enough,” said Marilyn Bull, MD, medical director of the Indiana Partnership to Prevent Violent Injury and Death and a developmental pediatrician at the Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Hospital for Children. “Children are naturally curious. If a gun is accessible in someone’s home, there is a good chance a child will find it and play with it. Hiding guns is not enough. There are countless tragic stories of kids finding guns that parents thought were well hidden. Ideally, guns need to be stored unloaded and locked in a gun safe with ammunition locked separately or stored unloaded with a trigger locking device.”
The Indiana Partnership to Prevent Violent Injury and Death at Riley Hospital for Children in conjunction with Clarian Health Partners, Peace Learning Center and Wishard Health Services will sponsor the sixth annual National Ask Day with a flower planting ceremony in memory of children affected by gun violence at the Peace Learning Center, Eagle Creek Park, 6040 DeLong Road on Friday, June 30 at 11:00 am.
“We are pleased to be part of this very important initiative,” said Tim Nation, executive director at Peace Learning Center. “This is just one way to get the message out about the danger of kids and guns.”
ASK Day is a comprehensive national public health campaign, developed by PAX/Real Solutions to Gun Violence, in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics.
PAX was founded in 1997 to bring new and effective solutions to the problem of gun violence in America, a public health crisis. The non-profit company has since grown into the largest non-lobbying gun violence prevention organization in the nation. More importantly, PAX’s work provides parents, children and others everywhere with simple solutions to make their homes, families and communities safer – solutions, which are literally saving children’s lives every day.