Why it is so important to ASK

By Vance Aloupis, Statewide Coordinator on 06/22/2011 @ 01:05 PM

The statistic that 40% of homes with children have firearms does not surprise me. Growing up, my house had one. And while it was a small 22-caliber pistol – hardly powerful enough to stop a burglar and more reminiscent of an old cowboy film – it gave my Dad a sense of added protection. Now, I have no doubt that he thought his hiding spot was sufficient – on the shelf of his closet behind the socks – but I can remember, even at a very young age, always knowing where it was. And on more than one occasion, I would find myself climbing his shelves and looking at this thing that I should not be looking at. Had my dad not had the foresight to keep a trigger lock on the gun and hide the bullets (I never could find them), then who knows what could’ve happened. The reality is that thousands of children are seriously injured or killed every year because the necessary, if any, precautions weren’t taken and the important and sometimes hard questions weren’t asked. These are tragedies that should not and must not occur.

Yesterday, June 21st, was national “ASK Day.” ASK stands for Asking Saves Kids. At the Batchelor Children’s Research Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, members of the medical community, law enforcement, the Children’s Trust and Superintendent of Miami-Dade Schools Alberto Carvalho, all came out to bring awareness to the issue and demand, on the first day of Summer, that parents begin to ask the questions that must be asked and take the time and the initiative to know more about the homes where their children will be playing. To ask if there’s a gun in the home and, if so, to make sure that it is properly locked and stored.

The issue resonates with me because of the fact that I, as a parent, have decided to keep a firearm in my home. And I’m constantly reminded of my own curiosity growing up – climbing the shelves in my dad’s closet. I will never be naïve enough to think that my daughter won’t, at the very least, try and find my firearm. And it’s my responsibility as a father to ensure that there is no possible way that she could ever unlock, load and fire. If we are willing to make the decision to keep a firearm in our home, we must be willing to take the responsibility necessary to ensure that a tragedy cannot occur.

The Children’s Movement of Florida, in supporting national ASK Day, insists that children need to be the first priority in decision-making in Tallahassee. I’d urge that they also must be the first priority in decision-making in many of our in all of our own lives -- whether parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or friends.