Protecting Our Kids by Securing Our Firearms

OP-ED| Jeffrey Holzberg, MD – Chiricahua Community Health Centers, Inc.

DOUGLAS, AZ – August 24, 2022

Beatrice (name changed) stood with excitement as she waited to pick up her daughter from her first day of kindergarten. It was around 2:00pm on Wednesday. She was standing outside of the Sarah Marley preschool and kindergarten building in Douglas, where 3, 4, and 5-year-old children were being introduced to school for the very first time, when she heard a “whoosh” over her head. Then another “whoosh” next to her, and something hitting the fence. She bent down and picked up what looked like a BB-gun bullet. She turned around and saw an unknown boy standing across the street pointing a gun towards her at the entrance.

She immediately called a teacher who notified the principal, who ordered a “soft lock down” of the school. Police were called. The child who shot at the school fled and was not found. We do not know who the child was, or why they were shooting at a preschool on the first day of school.

This letter is a request for every single adult in Cochise County and elsewhere who has a gun to secure and store the gun safely, especially if there are children in the home. This means:

•  If a gun is in the house, always keep it unloaded and locked
• Keep ammo (bullets) and guns locked in separate locations
• Safety devices, including gun locks, lock boxes and gun safes, should be used for every gun in the house. (The Sierra Vista Police Department also has free gun safety devices for your gun.)
• Storage keys and lock combinations should be hidden from children

No one expects that the mass shootings seen in schools, churches, and community centers throughout the country will happen in our county. We all pray that it doesn’t. To prevent this, we all have a responsibility to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them in the first place – this even includes toy BB-Guns. Three out of four children under 18 years who shot at a school obtained that gun from their home or the homes of relatives or friends. In nearly half of the shootings, the gun was easily accessible or not stored securely.

If you have any concerns of violence, suicide, or depression in your child, don’t wait. Trust your intuition and seek help. Contact Chiricahua, Copper Queen, Canyon Vista, or any behavioral health agency if you notice abnormal changes in your child’s behavior like becoming more withdrawn, disconnecting from friends, self-harming, or using alcohol or drugs. This is the time to connect and talk with them about their feelings and reach out to a health professional. Talking about mental health or suicide does not increase risk. As Beatrice told me over the phone on Wednesday night, “You need to be having a conversation with your children about guns and how to be safe. We need to have a conversation with our children in the home. Don’t be quiet. Talk. Say something.”

After the challenges of school closures over the past couple years due to COVID, we are all excited that school is back in session and children are back in school. Learning happens when children feel safe and secure in their environment. Let’s make sure we protect our children, our teachers, our families, and our community through the securing of firearms in our homes.

Resources to learn more:

• https://projectchildsafe.org/parents-resources/
• https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/research/areas-of-research/center-for-injury-research-and-policy/injury-topics/general/gun-safety
• Statistics obtained from: https://everytownresearch.org/report/preventing-gun-violence-in-american-schools/

Jeffrey Holzberg, MD MSc FAAP
Community Pediatrician
Chiricahua Community Health Centers, Inc

Chiricahua Community Health Centers, Inc. (CCHCI) is a mission driven Federally Qualified Health Center and a tax exempt not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Founded in 1996 as a small, rural health clinic operating in a community center, CCHCI has since grown to become the largest primary care organization in southeastern Arizona, serving more than 30,000 patients annually. CCHCI operates fourteen fixed-site medical clinics, and seven mobile-medical and mobile-dental units, that serve patients throughout the more than 6200 square mile borderlands of Cochise County.