TY - JOUR T1 - Children and Firearms in the Home: A Southwestern Ohio Ambulatory Research Network (SOAR-Net) Study JF - The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine JO - J Am Board Fam Med SP - 385 LP - 391 DO - 10.3122/jabfm.2007.04.060118 VL - 20 IS - 4 AU - Shalini G. Forbis AU - Terence R. McAllister AU - Susan M. Monk AU - Christopher A. Schlorman AU - Adrienne Stolfi AU - John M. Pascoe Y1 - 2007/07/01 UR - http://www.jabfm.org/content/20/4/385.abstract N2 - Background: To ascertain the prevalence of gun ownership, gun safety education, and parental attitudes on gun counseling in a Midwestern sample.Methods: Parents seeking care at participating practices in the Southwestern Ohio Ambulatory Research Network were recruited to complete a survey about gun ownership, gun safety education, and gun counseling attitudes. Attitudes and beliefs were compared between gun owners and non-gun owners.Results: Twenty-four percent of respondents had at least 1 gun in the home. Military families were more likely to own a gun than civilian families (28% vs 18%, P = .001). Fifty-two percent of sample children have received gun safety education. Eight percent indicated that a physician had asked about guns or discussed gun safety issues during an office visit. A majority of parents indicated that physicians should ask about guns in the home (69%) and advise parents on safe storage (75%), but they should not advise parents to remove guns from the home (12% of gun owners, 42% of non-gun owners).Conclusions: Despite the morbidity and mortality associated with guns, physicians in this study do not seem to be addressing this risk with families. A majority of gun owners do not agree that physicians should counsel the removal of guns from the home but agree that they should discuss safe gun storage information. ER -