Fired Up

What gives? It's completely disturbing that some parents still don't get the message--get guns out of the house! Experts warn parents time and again to remove firearms, especially if their kid is depressed. However, the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reports parents aren't listening.

A hundred depressed teens and their parents were interviewed before and after treatment for depression. Parents who had guns were warned about the dangers of keeping a gun in the house. Guns kill (duh), and depressed teens with access to guns are associated with higher rates of suicide. Of the families who had firearms, only 27 percent did away with guns. A whopping 73 percent didn't. Two years later, researchers interviewed the same parents. Of the families who got rid of the guns, only 36 percent had kept them away. Even worse? Seventeen percent of families who'd never owned a gun actually went out and purchased one! No joke.