Thea Williams
Appearances
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
Um, circle back sometimes. I think the best thing that I feel I hear is when I'm at an event in my community and I have loads of gun locks and I'm passing them out and people want to actually know how to use them. How do I apply them to my gun? That makes me happy when people want to know, um,
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
Well, they take my gun lock and they say, I don't own a gun, but my cousin does, or my brother does, or, you know, this person I know does. And they take them and bring them to family members. That makes me happy because I know that I'm doing something that could actually be effective.
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
Well, just to piggyback from that, I think it is an uncomfortable conversation. That's the reality. But there are lots of uncomfortable conversations, like the one you would have if they actually went to that friend's house and was harmed or killed. That would be a very much more uncomfortable conversation to have with that parent. So you have to weigh your options.
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
It's not uncomfortable to care about your kid's safety. It's not uncomfortable to ask if they have alcohol in the home and is it locked up. It's not uncomfortable to ask if they're going to be going somewhere other than. So we just have to, like Kathleen said, normalize it because I fear the conversation about. why that kid was over there playing with a gun and now my child is dead.
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
It's more uncomfortable than any other conversation we can have prior to that.
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
I think the most important part to hear is the aftermath of a child getting a hold of a gun or being in the direction of a gun that someone else is holding irresponsibly. When they come into that ED, you see a whole team of medical staff trying to save this child's life you are outside with the family and they're anticipating answers and they want good, good answers. And it's not always good.
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
And you are stressed for the parents because you want the outcome to be good too. And when it's not, the aftermath is so sad. It's, It's people wailing. It's people emotionally just can't handle themselves falling out. Like some people even throw up. It's so sad to watch.
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
aftermath of those kind of situations and even if the child survives for a few days later there's family coming in to visit there's people flying in from out of town so just imagine like how it affects the entire family it doesn't just affect the nuclear family it affects Everyone. And it's very sad to watch. It's emotionally draining.
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
And yeah, it's a hard job, but we do it because we want to see these numbers go down. We don't want to see another child come in with that situation and have to give resources to the family, purchase coffins. You know, it's just, it's sad.
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
And that's one thing that we, we do get therapy and we have resources to help us, you know, deal with those situations, but it didn't, we offer the same to our clients who come in, but it's just sad. It's sad as a whole to watch and it's so preventable. And I think making the conversation normal, like we make, I mean, if we're going to be gun owners and we want to
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
you know, have our rights and things like that, then we should be able to speak about safety and preventable things. And that's normal. And I just want it to be a normal conversation and not something that people are ashamed of or wanna hide.
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
Personally, if I feel comfortable allowing my kid to go to someone's house, right, then I should feel comfortable having that conversation because there are other people there are other avenues in which they can get hurt. So I would want to know who's going to be there. And if I can ask you who's going to be there, I can ask you, well, do you carry guns in your home? Do you have guns in your home?
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
I don't know. That's just a natural conversation for me. If I was to get a response, well, why do you think I'm such a terrible person? I'd say, well, it's not that you're a terrible person. It's that guns can be legally held in the home. And I'm just trying to figure out if that's something that you practice.
Health Chatter
Firearm Storage & Safety
Because if you do, then I would think, you know, I would want my child to maybe play outside or maybe your kids can come over here because I don't, I don't have guns in my home.