ASK Day 2007
June 19, 2007
Contact: Todd Harper
Phone: 317-630-7808
Pager: 317-310-5972
Indianapolis, June 19, 2007 – What sounds like a simple decision to let your child play at a friend’s home may be one of the most important decisions you will make this summer. So please ASK if there is a gun in the home before sending your child over to play.
ASK Day is a national day of focus on the lifesaving message of the ASK (Asking Saves Kids) campaign. ASK Day will take place on Thursday, June 21, the first day of summer, a time of year when children play more often in other homes.
“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, assistant chief of surgery, IU/Wishard Level I Trauma Center and clinical instructor, Department 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.”
Across the U.S., eight children are killed and 33 wounded from guns every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, statistics that are unmatched across the developed world. Nationally, over 40 percent of homes with children have a gun and many of those guns are left unlocked and loaded. In Indiana, 49 percent of homes have a gun. In Indiana, 49 percent of homes have a gun. In the U.S., more than 3,500 children under the age of 20 are killed each year by gun violence.
“Just talking to your child about the dangers of firearms is not enough,” said Marilyn Bull, MD, medical director, Indiana Partnership to Prevent Violent Injury and Death. “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.”
ASK Day is promoted locally by the Indiana Partnership to Prevent Violent Injury and Death and Wishard Health Services.
For more information on keeping your family safe from firearm injury, please contact the Indiana Partnership to Prevent Violent Injury and Death at (317) 278-0945.