Bloomberg Guns

Just say, "No!"

(AP Photo)

It's not the traditional bus tour. But the epidemic of gun violence demands innovative initiatives, particularly when it comes to children and guns.

"I Will Ask" ads will ride on 30 Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority buses over the next three months as part of a campaign launched by the Cleveland chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women with a $6,000 grant from the Huron Foundation.

The ads encourage parents to find out if weapons are in the homes of their children's playmates -- and, if so, to find out how they are secured.

One out of three households with kids harbor firearms and roughly 1.7 million children live in a residence with access to an unsecured, loaded weapon, according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

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In January, the journal Pediatrics published a study based on 2009 hospital records that found that, on average, 20 young people under the age of 20 were being hospitalized for gunshot wounds every day in the United States. Nearly a third of the shootings were accidental, the study found.

Closer to home, in November, a three-year-old Lorain girl was accidentally shot in the head by her four-year-old brother. The brother had found his father's firearm and might have mistaken it for a toy gun, his mother told a 9-1-1 dispatcher.

The "I Will Ask" posters sport cute kids and the questions: "Is There a Gun Where Your Child Plays? Is it unloaded? Is it locked up? Are the bullets stored separately?"

Ask the questions. The children will thank you.