For the past 19 years, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the American Academy of Pediatrics have collaborated to encourage parents to ask the parents of their children's friends if they have guns in their houses before allowing them to visit for play dates.

They call it the ASK (Asking Saves Kids) campaign. And ASK Day, the day each year that the campaign urges parents to take part, is June 21.

The reason? One in three homes with children have guns. Three in four children from ages 5 to 14 know where those guns are located. And 80% of unintentional firearm deaths of kids under the age of 15 occur in homes.

Those facts have become stark reality for people in southeast Wisconsin this week, as the deaths of two 5-year-old boys, one in Kenosha and one in Milwaukee, may be due to unlocked, loaded guns.

In Milwaukee, the boy was killed in an apparent accidental shooting on the city's west side Tuesday. Two neighbors said he got hold of a gun and shot himself. Police are still investigating.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Dakari Weldon was shot in Kenosha and dropped off at a local hospital, where he died. On Wednesday, two men were charged in connection with the shooting; one with homicide by negligent handling of a firearm, the other with leaving a loaded firearm within reach of a child.

“These unfortunate tragedies occur all too often, and it does commonly involve younger kids and younger teens,” said Stephen Hargarten, director of the Firearm Injury Center of the emergency department at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

The timing of these deaths comes the same week as ASK Day. Every June 21, the ASK campaign steps up its efforts to ask parents to sign a pledge to "ask if there is a gun in a home my child visits," "to ask if it's stored, locked and unloaded" and "to secure any firearms in my own home."

Anneliese Dickman, the Brady Center's Milwaukee program manager for the Combating Crime Guns Initiative, said parents should be asking these questions throughout the year. But June 21 was chosen as the day to promote the campaign because it's the first day of summer.

"Most parents know that summer means piecing together day camps and babysitters and play dates," Dickman said. "Your kids could be all sorts of places in summer, so it's a good time to remind parents that wherever your kids are spending time, they should not be able to access a firearm."

“We have to do a better job of education around gun safety and storage and take that seriously,” said Reggie Moore, director of the Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention.

How should parents approach other parents with this question?

Dickman suggested three strategies for people who might feel awkward about asking the question.

1. Own the awkwardness. This is the strategy that Dickman has always used with her own children, and she said no one has ever taken offense. "I just say, 'OK, I know this is a super awkward question, but I'm trying to make it a habit. I just need to know if you have guns in your house, and how you store them.' "

2. Be pre-emptive. When you're meeting parents of new friends, Dickman said, you can just go through the list of safety issues at your own house, and the other parents will likely reciprocate. "Just offer the information. Like, 'Oh, just so you know, we don't have any guns at our house, we don't have any pets, and if your kids have allergies, let me know what foods they can eat.' "

3. Use humor. "My absolute favorite strategy is to throw my own kid under the bus," Dickman said, laughing. "Say something like, 'My kid can't be trusted around a firearm. I can't even trust my kid around a can of whipped cream. Can you just assure me there aren't any unsecured firearms in the house?' "

Dickman said that when asking the questions, you don't want the other parent to feel like you're judging him.

"When you use humor and talk about your own child's capabilities, then it's less about the other family's choices and more about, let's be real, these are kids and they're not always going to behave appropriately."

The conversation doesn't have to be awkward

It may seem like asking about guns in a person's house is an awkward conversation to have, but Dickman said it doesn't have to be. In her experience, it rarely is.

Most parents understand that keeping guns away from children is a safety issue, but it needs to be talked about more often so that it's just as front-of-mind as any other safety concern.

"When my kids were little, it was just obvious that if they were going to a friend's house and the mom was planning on taking them to the park or something, I'd ask, 'Cool, do you have an extra booster seat, or should I leave mine?' Or a parent would tell me her kid was bringing her own food because she had allergies," Dickman said. "Those are safety issues, just like this is, and it's not awkward at all to ask those questions."

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Sydney Czyzon of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Contact Amy Schwabe at (262) 875-9488 or amy.schwabe@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @WisFamilyJS, Instagram at @wisfamilyjs or Facebook at WisconsinFamily.