The Nation - News from July 4, 1988

A safety group urged parents to take precautions to keep handguns away from their children, especially at this time of year when children are off from school. The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, a nonprofit group established in 1983 to educate Americans about the risks of owning handguns, released a study that found 38% of the unintentional shootings of children were either self-inflicted or inflicted by other children. The study also found that an additional 41% of the guns used in shootings of children were owned by a friend’s parents or by relatives other than the victim’s parents. The center studied 266 unintentional shootings of children that took place between January, 1986, and May, 1988.