Arizona’s health leaders are telling residents loud and clear: guns have no place in the family home.
That’s according to a set of new policy recommendations in a report from the Arizona Department of Health Services. Their latest Child Fatality Review Program (CFRP) report, released annually, advised the governor and state legislature to prevent firearm-related deaths by getting guns out of family homes.
“CFRP believes that the most effective way to prevent firearm-related deaths in children is to remove all firearms in households with children because the presence of firearms in a household increases the risk of suicide among adolescents,” said the agency’s report.
The department bolstered their case for the removal of guns from family homes by citing data correlating increased risks of youth suicide with the presence of guns, though the same report showed that firearms weren’t the leading cause of child fatalities. Rather, motor vehicle crashes were a far greater cause of preventable deaths among children last year: 20 percent, compared to 16 percent of deaths caused by a firearm injury.
The removal of firearms from households wasn’t the only gun safety measure recommended by the Arizona Department of Health Services. The department advocated for the mandating of mental health screening and gun safety training before anyone could purchase firearms, parents or no. The health experts also expressed a desire for the state to begin licensing and tracking all firearms, in addition to punishing those who fail to report any stolen firearms.
The leading voice on these recommendations is CFRP chair Mary Rimsza, a Tucson-based pediatrician who has held a series of other leadership positions. She had led the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric Workforce. Rimsza also taught at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.
Rimsza was an early advocate of embedding certain progressive ideals into pediatrics. Rimsza has co-authored several medical papers published with the American Academy of Pediatrics advocating for diversity and inclusion policies for race and sexuality as “essential” in the pediatric academic workforce.
In last year’s report, all recommendations were compiled together on a level basis. Rimsza’s opening letter didn’t focus on firearm injuries as much as other causes of preventable deaths, such as sleep deaths and infectious diseases. Instead, Rimsza made room for addressing COVID-19 vaccinations, and attributed the decline in child deaths from COVID-19 between 2021 to 2022 (a drop from 32 to 17) to COVID vaccines.
In this year’s report, Rimsza’s opening letter put out a clearer call to action on stricter controls over firearm ownership. Even for those Arizonans without children, Rimsza recommended rendering the firearms nearly useless in the home: unloaded and locked away in a safe totally separate from ammunition.
Parents of all adolescents should remove all guns from their homes, especially if there is a history of mental health issues or substance use issues. In addition, CFRP recommends that all gun owners should practice safe storage of their firearms by keeping guns unloaded and locked in a safe separate from the ammunition.
CFRP believes that the most effective way to disarm peaceable people – so that they may be subjected to unpeaceable actions without fear of resistance – is to hide behind, ‘the science’. Sounds likes it’s time to “to punishing those who fail to” leave peaceable people in peace; “health experts” words, not mine.
I don’t think I can add anything more to what has already been said. I do know that a majority of the legislature will see through this for what it is. A cheap way to circumvent the Rights duly afforded the citizens by the Bill of Rights. I know Representative Quang Nguyen will stand opposed to it.
i grew up in North Dakota hunting and fishing. i handled guns at a very young age. there is a saying there that goes, no 15 year old out hunting and driving with other 25 years olds has ever been accused of holding up a small town bar or store. Ever.
I have a 35yr old niece who has the mental capabilities of a 3 or 4 yr old, and she has known since she was a child that she was not to touch any guns. She was raised around guns, and if she could learn the rules of not touching them, then anyone can. It is not the kids, it is the fact that the kids are not being taught life basics of what is right and wrong and not to touch what is not yours.
The typical bureaucrat response. Somebody is abusing (in the bureaucrat’s opinion) a right guaranteed in the U. S. Constitution, so lets make a rule that places limits on that right for everyone. Even those who don’t abuse it. That’s government logic.
Lefty crackpots. Remove these people from their positions.
Yes, remove them. Ban them from ever holding any position in state or local government ever again. That’s the only way to demonstrate to the public that Arizona government follows federal law and will not infringe Arizonans’ Second Amendment rights.
What part of “shall not be infringed” do they not understand?
Teen suicides are not because there may be a gun in the home. What about all the medications they make these kids take for mental health issues?
There is also no correlation between this report and the 4th amendment.
The Dept of “Health” is banned inside my home.
The most common health problems nationally are heart disease and cancer. However, just behind those are obesity and diabetes. Does Mary Rimsza have anything to say about kids and obesity causing life long diabetes problems? No, she just hates the second amendment and ignores the constitution.
and yet after 30 years my kids all survived
at 12 I had hunter safety course(yah, I had 30-30 at 12)
knew exactly what they were and that they KILLED
what I aimed for
We need to change the hearts of men, not the 2nd Amendment! Only Jesus can change the hearts of stone!
Nobody is going to do anything, the AZ GOP will do nothing. Nobody will call for the removal of Mary Rimsza. AZ is California now.
Just one more liberal health organization trying to legislate the 2A for the bureaucrats. What these idiots don’t understand, no one wants to listen to them anymore. They are about as useful as Hollywierd actors trying to tell us how to run our country into the ground. The less “actors” and bureaucrats we have the better off this country will be. 1/20 can’t get here quick enough.
I’ve got a great idea: Let’s remove all Arizona Dept. of Health Services policy recommendations from family homes.
That being said, there is great technology available today that allows you to store a loaded defensive weapon in your home and prevent children from accessing it.
The argument is so weak and logically flawed.
Mental health concerns are mostly from the woke culture that trigger the mental illness among the adolescents who are in the early stage of critical thinking but instead given the toxic indoctrination, leading to psychological and behavioral problems.
This is typically blaming the root cause, which is actually from the toxic, deadly and destructive progressive agenda, of the gun faults. It has the same political pattern caused by the woke culture that is imposed with the radical leftist agenda to harm their dumb followers only while creating social confusion.
If gun safety were taught by the parents the way it used to be when I was a boy there would be a lot less of a problem. I was taught how to handle a weapon safely from a very wary age and that guns were not toys. Parents with guns need to do the same thing. We never had a gun safe and knew right where they were. We also knew our backsides would be very red for a week if we did touch them
Howard, how funny to read your comment. I am in the process of teaching my grandkids gun safety and how to fire them. There ages are between 4 and 10 years old. I am using the same 22 rifle my mother gave me when I was 8 years old. The next thing will be a NRA safety class. Thank you for your comment.
I’m not a betting man, but I’d lay odds that Rimsza was elated over the passage of Prop 139 last November.
I’m not a betting man, but I bet the subject of Prop 139 is the leading cause of child deaths by far.
It’s real simple, the Arizona Legislature doesn’t have the authority to do that. That would be a blatant violation of our Constitutional Rights under the Second Amendment. Obviously, the authors of this report are illiterate to the most recent SCOTUS rulings. Having said that, the Arizona Health Department needs to be dissolved, and everyone fired for openly trying to circumvent the US Constitution. We live in a constitutional republic and not 1938 Germany.
Arizona’s health leaders are telling residents loud and clear: guns have no place in the family home…. SO NO ONE ASKED THEM FOR THEIR OPINION
Millions of guns do no wrong.. are swimming pools next ? Cars? Parking lots at bars? Left Turn lanes? No Stop Light Crosswalks? Speeds over 55 mph *(Here we go again) Cars without “Roll Cages” and helmets on all passengers – only after they have completed a safe passenger defensive seating course proving they know how to ride in a car…
Get rid of the criminals drugs addicted street evil – that will and do take every and any advantage provided and …. then maybe we can talk – Just kidding – SECOND AMENDMENT IS THERE FOR GOOD REASON. What to start a fight… this is a good way to get it going.
What did that cop in the movie say? KID – MAKE MY DAY ?
A gun unloaded and locked in a safe is about as useful as a concrete parachute.