A bill before the California legislature would require pediatricians to question children about family gun ownership, counseling patients on the alleged harmful effects of owning a gun. The bill is based on a recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics that "except in the hands of law enforcement officers or others specifically authorized by law, handguns serve no legitimate or lawful purpose, and constitute a hazard to the public health and welfare of the people, and especially of the children, of this State."

But a study by Frederick Paola in the January 2001 edition of the Southern Medical Journal concludes that such a measure would substantially increase doctors' liability insurance premiums to account for bad advice dispensed to patients' families who, after disarming, subsequently become crime victims. Research by criminologist Gary Kleck reveals some 2.5 million incidents in the United States between 1988 and 1993 in which guns were successfully used to ward off criminals and prevent injury. The Centers for Disease Control reported that in 1997 the firearm-related deaths for children age fourteen and under was 630, a number that unfortunately would be greater the more parents disarmed.

[Ed.: More inflated estimates of gun-related fatalities among children include adolescent gang members in the category.]

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