I'm sure that's part of it, and that's why we do things like lock up liquor and lock up medicine. But we have parents who don't lock up guns. There's definitely the novelty part of it, especially when you're forbidden to do something. So there are some parents who argue that if they take their kids to a shooting range and they let them see the power of a gun, their kids will have a respect for the gun and won't be so curious anymore because they've already fired it and it's not that big a deal. Does that work? I don't know. It's difficult to test.

What did the kids do with the guns? Did they just look at them? Point and shoot?

They shot at other kids, shot themselves, shot up the room. The kids who played with the guns became more aggressive overall, verbally and physically. They called each other names, kicked the toys.

At about what age do kids realize the difference between a real and a toy gun?

As part of the studies we asked the kids to identify the guns as real or pretend and we found that almost all of the 4-year-olds thought the guns were toys. About half the 5-year-olds thought the real guns were toys and by the time they were 6 or 7, they could tell the difference. That didn't stop them from playing with them, though.

How realistic are the results of the study, considering that children usually don't just find guns lying around?

What prompted the first study was that the children in that day care had found a gun a few weeks previously that was lying on the ground outside their day care for some reason. They had picked it up before they told the teacher about it. We want kids not even to touch the gun because it could go off. Most of the time kids aren't going to find them lying around. They're more likely going to find them in a bedside drawer, at the top of a closet.

But it's difficult to test this. What I was more interested in finding out was, if they did find one just sitting there, would they touch it? They had just been told that, even in a setting that is safe, even if you're at home or in day care, if you find a gun, you need to not touch it. You need to go get an adult. In that essence, it was a little unrealistic. Some people criticize the study, saying it's not fair to leave them lying around in an area where they feel safe, where they are allowed to explore the other toys and items. But most parents don't tell their kids that they can't go into their dresser drawers or a particular area of the house. I have a 4-year-old and he's never gone into my dresser drawers as far as I know, but I've never told him he can't and they're not locked up.

Based on the results of your studies, what would you suggest is the best way for parents to keep their children safe from guns?

I don't think you can teach really young kids safety just because they can't really distinguish between fantasy and reality. They don't have a concept of death as being a permanent thing. Really what parents need to do is monitor their kids and keep their guns locked away.

You do need to continually educate your child and hope that somewhere, somehow it seeps in. We did have some kids who did leave the room and tell an adult there were guns there. Thirty-five percent didn't play with them, or got an adult. They were usually the girls.

In the first study, though, in 1995, there was no difference -- about an equal number of boys and girls played with the gun. In the second study it was mostly boys. Generally, I would say yes, boys are more likely to pick up and play with a gun. I think that lack of finding in the first study is probably unusual, but that doesn't mean that girls won't play with guns.

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