Local health system to distribute free gun locks in effort to promote safe gun storage
NorthShore University Health System announced a gun lock giveaway in partnership with the Cook County sheriff’s office to promote safe gun storage.
Free gun locks will be available at pediatric units in Evanston Hospital, 2650 Ridge Ave., Evanston, and Swedish Hospital, 5140 N. California Ave., Chicago, as well as at the Evanston Township High School Health Center at 1600 Dodge Ave, Evanston.
The program, according to a news release, is an extension of existing efforts brought forward by pediatric physicians after data from the Centers for Disease Control placed guns as the leading cause of death in children.
“I have seen the devastating consequences of gun violence on children and their families,” Ann Marie Thomas, M.D., a pediatric hospitalist with NorthShore said in the news release. “As a pediatrician, part of our job is educating families on keeping their kids safe, whether that be with seat belts, smoke detectors or securing guns in the home.”
Thomas has treated a fair number of children with gun shot injuries throughout her medical career and said she feels the issue is becoming more common.
Some of what physicians are teaching families includes giving them the tools to ask about safe gun storage at other homes where their children play. This training is part of a wider “It Doesn’t Kill To Ask” campaign encouraging parents to, when their child visits someone else’s home, ask those parents or people in charge whether there are guns in the home and how they are stored.
As a mom to two young children, Thomas has incorporated the lessons she’s taught patients into her own life. She said asking others about unlocked guns in their homes felt uncomfortable at first but it became much easier the more she asked.
“Every parent is trying to make the best decisions to keep their kid safe,” she said. “When you come from that perspective when you’re asking questions, I think people can feel that.”
According to Thomas, NorthShore has spoken with over 1,000 families about gun safety and patients have been “really open to it.”
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said, per the news release, that with the help of area health organizations, the sheriff’s office has given away hundreds of gun locks.
“Gun violence has been the leading cause of death for children and teens in this country since 2020,” Dart said. “If you have a firearm, it is your responsibility to ensure that it is locked and kept away from anyone who shouldn’t have access to it, especially children.”
NorthShore also joined Hospitals United, a nationwide public awareness campaign of over 170 health care organizations with the goal to educate parents on how to ask if guns are in homes their children go to and if those guns are safely stored.
“The sheriff’s office and the dedicated doctors and nurses at these hospitals will do whatever we can to help keep families and the communities we serve safe,” said Dart.
Plans are in motion to expand the program into Highland Park Hospital. Primary care physicians are also looking into adding the gun safety education into their conversations with adult patients.
“We just as a culture need to kind of normalize these questions,” Thomas said. “It is part of our culture so we have to get over the awkwardness of it.”
