I have yet to receive an e-mail back from the three organizations or professionals that I contacted in Week One. The organization that I selected was Child Defense Fund. This organization was originally started by a woman named Marian Wright Edelman. She spent the beginning of her career defending individuals liberties of people and families that were struggling with poverty and discrimination. This organization creates policies and programs from children to help them overcome and deal with the issues by giving these children and families the health care, child care, nurturing environment, proper nutrition and appropriate education they need.
One of the current issues that caught my eye from the newsletter is the issue of protecting children and not guns. The e-newsletter that I chose focused mainly on the children in the early childhood education setting. One important fact that I found very interesting is that: "A child or teen dies or is injured from guns every 30 minutes." (Children's, 2012). This is a crazy statistic. The world needs to be more aware of children and less worried about using guns. The newsletter also states that a few years ago, there were more children under the age of 5 that were killed in a year than a police officer on duty in a year. It is important that the government stresses the importance of the safety of children and not bringing guns anywhere near children unless it is an absolute necessity.
There was nothing else in any of the resources provided that talked about gun safety, especially around children.
References:
Children's Defense Fund (2012, ): Health Care Coverage for All of America's Children, Ending Child Poverty, Child Advocacy Programs. Protect Children, Not Guns.Retrieved from http://www.childrensdefense.org/programs-campaigns/protect-children-not-guns/
Chelsea,
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard anything back from the professionals that I contacted either. I remember reading the statistic that you mentioned, it's disturbing.
Melissa
Ugh, I have typed this 3 times! when it comes to guns and kids I think it is an issue we should be a little more vocal about. As a home visitor I always asked families if they had any guns in the house. I also asked if they had a gun lock in it, if it was stored out of reach, and if it was unloaded. The community I worked in had a lot of families who own guns for hunting, and some who had guns because they were in gangs or felt they needed them for protection. Our community also has a free gun lock and safety kit program I referred several families to.
ReplyDeleteThere have been at least 5 kids killed in the past few months after they found their parents gun and shot their siblings or another child. One local case involved a cop who left his toddlers alone in the car with his loaded gun. The, "it won't happen to me" attitude is one we need to overcome, and we should not be afraid to include gun safety as part of our parent education.
The statistic you mentioned in your blog is very upsetting to know. I agree that we must must worry about our children but in a world where violence is growing and the number of people and children dying from the use of guns its hard to separate the two. Think about the several issues of school shootings that have occurred. It is an issue that's not going away over night and must be handled in order to protect our children.
ReplyDeleteAshley Daniels