Preventing Unintentional Firearm Injury in Children: The Need for Behavioral Skills Training

Unintentional firearm injury in children is a problem in the United States that warrants attention. Recent research has identified several risk factors for such injuries and has developed prevention strategies for reducing their occurrence. Many of these programs, however, have not been evaluated or have been shown to be ineffective. Research on the prevention of other childhood injuries, on the other hand, has shown behavioral skills training to be successful for teaching protective behaviors to children for a variety of injury threats. This paper examines risk factors for firearm-injury in children, briefly reviews existing protection programs and their limitations, provides a brief overview of research on effective childhood injury prevention, and concludes with a description of the components of an effective injury prevention program and directions for future research.