Study: 1 in 4 Colorado teens have quick access to guns

BY MARKIAN HAWRYLUK KAISER HEALTH NEWS

One in 4 Colorado teens reported they could get access to a loaded gun within 24 hours, according to survey results published late last month. Nearly half of those teens said it would take them less than 10 minutes.

“ at’s a lot of access and those are short periods of time,” said Virginia McCarthy, a doctoral candidate at the Colorado School of Public Health and the lead author of the research letter describing the ndings in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics.

e results come as Coloradans are reeling from yet another school shooting. On March 22, a 17-yearold student shot and wounded two school administrators at East High School in Denver. Police later found his body in the mountains west of Denver in Park County and con rmed he had died from a selfin icted gunshot wound. Another East High student was fatally shot in February while sitting in his car outside the school.

e time it takes to access a gun matters, McCarthy said, particularly for suicide attempts, which are often impulsive decisions for teens. In research studying people who have attempted suicide, nearly half said the time between ideation and action was less than 10 minutes. Creating barriers to easy access, such as locking up guns and storing them unloaded, extends the time before someone can act on an impulse, and increases the likelihood that they will change their mind or that some-