GAO Report Finds Free Gun Locks Work, Meddlesome Doctors Don’t

By Tom Knighton

As a parent, my wife and I have had to talk a time or two about what we would do if the doctor started to ask about guns. My take was simply to inform the doctor that it’s none of his business and to take our business elsewhere. My wife’s was a bit more pragmatic: tell them there aren’t any, then soldier on.

However, a new report from the General Accounting Office–the investigative arm of Congress–found something interesting about doctors and their fairly new propensity for asking about gun ownership in the home, followed by a lecture about stuff you may already know. It doesn’t work nearly as well as just giving people gun locks.

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report has confirmed what we know to be true. The distribution of free gun locks helps to increase the use of safe storage practices. Having doctors talk to parents about safe storage and firearms in the homes does not change the parents’ behavior. In the words of the GAO authors:

“Our review of the studies relating to safe storage approaches (device distribution and physician consultation) found that providing a free locking device to study participants influenced behavior to store …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms