WATCH: Video Shows How Children React to Finding a Gun and You Might Be Surprised

By Lindsey EllefsonMay 5th, 2016, 2:26 pm
 

In the ever-present debate around gun control and reform, there is one talking point that is especially harrowing: Children are accidentally shooting themselves or other with guns that they find, often in their own homes. The amount of kids playing with and discharging guns strikes some as staggering, especially when the National Rifle Association is pushing a marketing campaign that involves reimagining classic children’s stories with armed protagonists and Iowa lawmakers recently considered letting 14-year-olds legally shoot.

Charlotte, North Carolina’s Fox 46 took notice of the spate of kids accidentally killing themselves. They decided to do a little test. Last night, they aired the first of a two-part series meant to show what children will do when they see a gun. Carolina Panthers player Thomas Davis and his wife Kelly participated in the event along with Fox 46’s assistant news director, Ned Hibberd and other local parents.

While they watched the feed from hidden cameras, their children played in a nearby room in which local police had hidden a realistic-looking fake gun. The goal was to see what the kids would do when they found it among the other toys. Some parents were sure their child knew proper gun safety and wouldn’t point the gun at anyone. Other parents weren’t sure what the kids would do.

It took one minute for the gun to be found, three and a half minutes for the kids to attempt to pull the trigger after pointing it at someone, and 12 minutes for them to stop playing with it altogether.

The parents were shocked, as were news personnel.

The second installment of the channel’s special will air tonight at 10:00 p.m. EST. Mecklenburg County Sheriff Irwin Carmichael will explain how to talk to kids about the very real dangers of guns, which many of the parents in the room claimed to have already done.

What do you think? Are you surprised about how the kids responded to finding the realistic-looking gun in the couch?

[image via screengrab]

For more from Lindsey, follow her on Twitter or Facebook
.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com

Filed Under: