Monday, May 3, 2010

Somehow this sounds familiar.

"If we teach our children about gun safety, they'll get curious about guns."

Really? I suppose the same goes for teaching kids about safe sex.

It doesn't? We have to understand that kids will get curious about sex, and it's the schools' and parents' responsibility to teach kids to be safe around sex? Then, what's the difference between that and teaching children about being safe around guns?

I sense an ideological disconnect, here.

4 comments:

  1. You know, I live in an area where hunting is widespread. Young people (not just the guys) learn from a fairly early age how to handle - and respect - rifles and shotguns.

    Interestingly, most of our gun violence involves "outsiders" - people from the city, from areas where they didn't grow up hunting. And you don't often hear of accidental shootings involving someone who was taught gun safety as a kid.

    So yeah: I am with you in calling BS on that logic.

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  2. My mother tried to teach me to be terrified of them. Needless to say, it didn't work.

    My best friend other than my husband taught me to respect them, and to like them. His father taught him to be safe around guns, and he's teaching his step children to be safe. He will, no doubt, teach his own child the same.

    I already plan to teach my children to be safe around guns, and to use them properly when they're old enough/big enough.

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  3. I taught my son (28) about guns when he was about 8 years old. I wanted to take the "mystery" about firearms away and have him respect them. I drilled into his head that every gun was loaded until he, himself, proved otherwise. Even after watching me inspect a gun and then handing it to him, if he failed to open the breach and verify it was unloaded, I would chew him out till he was practically in tears. To this day, if anyone hands him a gun, even in a gunshop, he will open the breach and verify it's empty before he does anything else.

    I also told him that if he never went near the guns when I wasn't home and never mentioned them to his friends, I would allow him to choose any of my handguns for himself when he got older. Three years ago, he came to me to collect on the promise. He choose my Colt Combat Commander. That was my baby, my favorite. Now it's his and I was proud to give it to him.

    BobF

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  4. Good thought. However, I'm currently carrying child #2, and I'm not sure that will be the last one. Given that, I don't have enough handguns to give one to each child as they reach adult. Nor do I have enough rifles. Maybe I'll promise to buy them something they want within a certain budget

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