Keeping Kids Safe From Guns

 

My husband spent 9 years in the Marine Corps, and won many sharp-shooting awards. We have a rifle and a handgun in our home, and we have a 9 month old son. We keep them in our room, where our son can’t get to them. We both know how to use the guns, and we plan on teaching our son (and future children) how to shoot, as well as how to respect guns. He will not think a gun is a toy - he will know a gun is a weapon, and he will not be allowed to touch them until he is old enough to use them properly.

- April

Posted 02/12/08 06:52 PM

 

 

How is keeping a gun in the house, anymore dangerous than prescription drugs, knives, forks, electrical outlets etc? It all comes down to the parents teaching the child. It is easy to point out how many deaths from “gun related” incidents, but people also fail to remark on the number of incidents from electric shock, falling down stairs, burns from stoves/irons ……………… You could go on and on about these incidents, but yet no one seems to be as concerned as they are about *guns*. Here is a hint, not all of us that own guns are gun toting idiots, who only want to blast our way through life. There are thousands of responsible owners, who vote/pay taxes/live quiet lives. If you really want to point the finger at the REAL problem, then start with the parents. Take some personal responsibility. “Prevent tragic accidents in your home.” Can you also list ways of preventing drowning in the bath tub, or keeping your child from being burned by the stove? Or teaching your child to not answer the door to strangers? One sided narrow minded postings like these, are just that…..

- fred davis

Posted 07/30/08 08:33 AM

 

 

I am a medical professional, a full time educator, and a combat veteran. I have lived or worked in some of the safest communities and some of the most dangerous places in the world - to include sub-saharan and west Africa, the Middle East, Central America, and Asia. This is NOT about guns, this is about parents recognizing their responsibility to educate their children. Instead of mindless fear and paranoia - why not educate them about the proper respect and use of one of the most important tools of personal freedom and democracy that we possess? Start from early childhood and ensure that as they grow into adolesence and adulthood they have the mindset, knowledge, and abilities to understand and enjoy firearms as part of their cultural and political heritage. Many have died to protect your natural right to defend yourself and your political right to resist oppression. Teaching kids about firearms is no more difficult that teaching them to safely use the iron, a sewing machine, a circular saw; no harder than talking about safe sex and moral values, about drug use and dependancy, or teaching them to drive. And beyond all of these things, this one is a constitutionally protected right.

- JNT

Posted 07/30/08 11:03 AM

 

 

Here’s a better idea: Teach your little ones proper and stringent firearm safety, and have them develop a sense of respect for firearms. (When they’re mature enough, of course.) That way, your children will be safe around firearms at all times, regardless of your presence, and you won’t have to compromise the benefit of owning a firearm. You can’t shelter the kids from firearms forever. They’ll come across one somewhere down the line. Do you want them to know how to clear and secure it when the time comes, or how to look down the barrel and pull the trigger?

- William C.

Posted 09/02/08 09:11 PM