Media-Based Education for Parents on Firearm Safety

The objective of this study is to produce and evaluate a series of interrelated, televised messagesreduce firearm injuries and deaths related to the proliferation of guns in households where they areFirearms are the second leading cause of death and yet most parents do not discuss firearm safety wiensure that their children have unsupervised access only to safe environments where all firearms areammunition stored separately. This strategy uses a public health approach to alert parents to the dainjuries, homicides and suicides if their children and adolescents have access to improperly storedmodel strategies to facilitate developmentally appropriate communication about firearm safety betweechildren, to increase parental awareness of the need for better supervision of children and adolescefirearms and to demonstrate proper storage of firearms in the home. In Phase I we will produce threetelevision spots which will be tested under simulated televised viewing conditions.