Guns aren't toys. They should never be treated like toys. Even toy guns should be given a greater degree of respect than, say, Hot Wheels. That's because toy guns can be used to teach basic firearm safety in a controlled way. That doesn't mean guns are toys, though and it never should be assumed they are.

In fact, this is probably the one thing more gun people will agree with gun grabbers on.

That doesn't change the fact that at least some people seem to think that guns should be compared to toys. Granted, in this case, the author is comparing them to dangerous toys that have been recalled, but that's still a problem.

As I was rushing around finishing last-minute shopping, picking up ingredients for special meals and wrapping up the dreaded emails and work tasks that separate us from yuletide festivities, I received a message that piqued my interest. A popular story player for children, used frequently by my 4-year-old as one of 900 adjuncts to get her to sleep every night, was being recalled due to a fire hazard. As I read further, I discovered that nine units in the United States and United Kingdom had overheated and melted due to battery issues. The company was recalling over 250,000 units.

I was interested in this recall as a concerned parent who, of course, doesn’t want their child to be burned or their home to catch fire (lest they remove the one precious item that gets my daughter to sleep most nights). But what really caught my attention was the intensity of the response to this issue. Because in addition to being a sleep-deprived yet proud mother of two young children, I am also a pediatric emergency physician and a firearm injury prevention researcher.

It’s fascinating that we have such a strong response to toy malfunctions, which may harm our children in real but minor ways (I remember a recall of a popular toy because children’s fingers could become stuck in it). And while I, the least grinchy of all mothers, wish only the safest toys for our children’s digits, I’m perplexed that as a society we will run news stories, interviews and social media campaigns to remove the dreaded scourge of finger-trapping toys from our streets and yet allow firearms — the leading cause of death among children in the U.S. ages 1-17 for five years running, according to a Johns Hopkins University report — to remain so easily accessible, seemingly without a second thought.

As a pediatric emergency medicine physician, I have witnessed countless tragedies involving children that could have been prevented. The guttural wail that comes from a parent while clutching the body of their deceased child is the most horrific thing you will ever hear. To witness this repeatedly due to preventable firearm injuries is as sickening as it is maddening. Lax firearm regulations, along with a surge in firearm purchasing during the pandemic, have created a perfect storm of access to these deadly items, often left unlocked and easily accessible to curious little ones.

First, there are major problems with that report.

Second, why would you compare toy recalls with guns?

Toys are recalled because they don't work as they're intended. Just playing with the toys can result in injury or death, something that isn't intended by the manufacturers. Those manufacturers are opened up to lawsuits over those injuries, so they issue a recall to do away with the dangerous toys that have some flaw or another.

Guns aren't remotely in the same category.

Of those kids who are injured or killed, how many are hurt because of the gun not functioning properly? How many are hurt because the gun somehow didn't do what it was designed to do?

I'd say it's pretty close to zero.

See, those kids are being hurt, but the good doctor here--and this isn't the first piece I've seen in the last little bit where someone does the "I'm an emergency room physician" bit as if that somehow gives them broader expertise on guns--essentially ignores that those kids who are hurt due to the willful actions of another.

The gun works exactly as designed. The problem is that there are bad people out there who use guns for bad things. Guns aren't going to be recalled because of that just like Toyota has never issued a recall because of drunk driving fatalities.

That's because the car works as it's supposed to, it's just not designed to prevent someone doing something illegal in the first place. What's more, the technology actually exists to make a car do just that. In fact, breathalyzers are installed in the cars of people with DUI arrests all the time. One could argue that this could be installed by Toyota or another car company to reduce drunk driving fatalities.

But no one does. No one holds car companies responsible for how their products are misused. No one is talking about truck control after the Bourbon Street attack. Why would they?

So no, there are no recalls on guns because the guns aren't the problem.