[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 107 (Friday, July 27, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S8341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         QUESTIONS FOR PARENTS

  Mr. LEVIN. Madam President, according to a study by the Brady Center 
to Prevent Gun Violence, in 1998, there was a gun in more than four out 
of every ten households with children and a loaded gun in one in every 
ten households with kids. These numbers are frightening. While most 
parents think to ask where their kids are going, who they are going 
with and when they will be home, how many think to ask the parents of 
their children's friends whether they keep a gun in their home and 
whether they keep it locked?
  Unfortunately, the Brady Center's study reports that more than 60 
percent of parents have never even thought about asking other parents 
about gun accessibility. If we want to protect our children from gun 
violence, these are questions we probably need to start asking. After 
all, while in 1 year firearms killed no children in Japan, 19 in Great 
Britain and 153 in Canada, guns killed 5,285 children in the United 
States. Asking another parent whether they keep a gun in their home is 
tough. But the question could save a child's life.

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