Gun Safety how would you react?

[emzhengjiu]

I would suggest that you have your children take gun safety classes so they know how to respect and handle a gun. Then this type of situation isn't an issue.

 

How so? Two of the children that were present are not mine. I have little or no control over them or their training in safety. Either could have picked up the gun and accidentally shot it. Not only that but children are children with judgment and skills that are forming, not yet mature regardless of the excellence of their training. While I agree a class in gun safety is a good idea, to say this type of a situation would not longer be an issue is just not realistic.

[5kidsforME]

Those guns should be LOCKED up at all times! Those people are STUPID! Please don't let your dc EVER go to that home again!

 

 

P.S. WE have many guns in our home and they are ALWAYS locked up at home. My dh and sons target shoot at our local rod & gun club. My dh runs the pistol league at that club and I'm SURE he would agree with me.

 

 

:iagree: If your friend is not an idiot she is very very naive. We have guns as well and are NOT anti-gun at all. BUT they should be locked up out of the reach of children.

[ekarl2]

My father is a retired cop. I was ALWAYS around guns because my dad always had one on him. He carried a revolver and there were always one or two speed-loaders in the glove compartment of the car.

 

I don't remember how old I was the first time my dad took me shooting, but I was young, very young. I wore eye, ear, and hand protection, but my dad wanted me to know what it felt like to fire a weapon. If you've ever done it, it's scary! The recoil hurts your arms and hands, the sound is loud, the smoke and smell fill your nose.

 

My dad did this so I wouldn't be curious. He new it would scare the you-know-what out of me and I wouldn't go NEAR a gun after that. He was right. We always talked about gun safety, but the actual shooting of a weapon was the best thing ever to make sure I never went near one as a child.

 

As an adult and a military officer, I am qualified on a 9mm handgun. I can shoot and shoot well, but it's funny how that experience with my dad stays with me.

[Peek a Boo]

How so? Two of the children that were present are not mine. I have little or no control over them or their training in safety. Either could have picked up the gun and accidentally shot it. Not only that but children are children with judgment and skills that are forming, not yet mature regardless of the excellence of their training. While I agree a class in gun safety is a good idea, to say this type of a situation would not longer be an issue is just not realistic.

 

:iagree:

 

I wouldn't mind going over there WITH my dc [because as another poster pointed out, it wasn't a malicious thing], but they would always be in my sight.

[Harriet Vane]

My friend told me last night that I'm overreacting for these reasons: the safety was on,

 

Yes but can't it be turned off by someone persistent and inquisitive? I don't know a whole lot about guns. It just seems as though unless the safety requires a key or something to open, it's kind of like a child-safe top on a medicine bottle--only child-safe until a persistent, inquisitive child figures it out.

 

the children never touched the guns

Luck and God's grace, as you well know.

 

, and boys are the ones who are usually curious about guns,

This is a sweeping generalization, and a really stupid one at that. We don't base our children's safety on gender preferences or "usually."

 

her daughter is well trained not to touch guns

What about the other kids?

 

, and the children were where they were not supposed to be.

If the door was not locked or they were not specifically told this area was off-limits, I can easily see how kids could end up in that room without fully realizing they are not supposed to be. Either way, though, the gun was easily accessible.

 

She did mention she should have checked on the kids more closely though knowing guns were in the house.

Ya think?!?!!!

 

As of now, my girls are not allowed to visit my friend's parents anymore. So am I over reacting? No, absolutely not. I would never allow my kids there again first because there is an unsecured gun and second because of your friend's rotten attitude about it.

Judy

 

My thoughts above.

[angela in ohio]

I am not anti-gun at all. Dh is actually an NRA and hunter safety instructor. We have many guns. But they are always locked away securely whenever other children are in our home. I don't trust other people's dc who may not have had any gun safety training. We lock them in the safe, and then lock the door to the room, any time ANY other child will be in our home.

 

You have a right to be upset, and I would not let my child back in that home.

[ereks mom]

Yes, I think rather than make guns out to be something intrinsically bad, we taught our son what a gun can do and when he was old enough to handle it he was taught how to shoot. Not so he can kill anything for fun, but to know how to be safe around guns and - thank God it has not been necessary - to defend himself should he need to in our very rural area where the occasional prison escapee or drunk show up on your property.

 

Guns should be in a safe place - we don't store them under the pillows! However, if these people did not expect young ones to visit they may have felt free to leave them wherever.

I personally cannot imagine leaving loaded guns lying around. For this reason, I would be cautious letting children visit again - not because these people own guns but evidently they treat them as home decoration.

 

When our kids were very small, dh took them out to the back of our property and let them watch him as he used his hunting rifle to shoot gallon milk jugs filled with water. He explained to them that guns can be very dangerous, and that a person could be harmed in the same way as the milk jugs. The kids learned that lesson well. Dh's guns were (are) stored in unlocked gun cases in a closet that we refer to as "the hunting closet". Ammo was (is) also stored there, in a box on a high shelf. The kids never bothered the guns or ammo.

 

When the kids were older, they both learned to shoot. Both ER & EK can shoot shotguns & enjoy skeet shooting, and ER enjoys deer hunting.

[5sons]

More children in the US die from drowning in less than 3" of water (water in a bucket) than children shooting other children with a gun. Every year usually less than 10 children are killed by other children using guns.

 

More than 1.5 million criminals are stopped every year by gun owning US citizens.

 

It seems that homeschoolers are very concious of teaching our children where the ps fails.

 

Guns exist. Teaching our children about them is the only way insure they understand the danger.

 

imho, I would use this situation to teach.

 

Kristen

[rlowetx]

! My teens were in Alaska and many people had guns. I don't have to tell you the stories. :(

 

hmm, I'm not sure what you are saying about Alaskans, but I am one...yes, many people there have and know how to handle guns, but that isn't really the issue I think in this. In my family, where my dad was a cop (and again in Alaska), there were loaded guns in the house.. but again, not the issue here. The question is as a parent would you want to allow your children to go to a house with guns under the pillow? My answer is no. I am familiar with safeties, and they are all different. I was raised with proper respect for guns and still my answer is no..my friends up there (and now in TX) and down here have guns.. have loaded guns.. and at my son's age and responsibility level I do not want him handling them or near them unless he is being trained. Since I live in 2 very gun friendly states, its just a matter of discussion with other families and people - they know what I need and so we respect each others choices.. if they can't and don't want to keep them away, then my son can't play at their house without being under my supervision..

When people are over, the guns need to be in a lockbox...(most responsible gun owners have these).

[Joanne]

I

think people have a right to own guns, keep them loaded, and under their pillow.

 

But unless these people are challenged in some way, thinking having a loaded gun under a pillow, and then inviting kids over to play with kittens that meander around the house, is sort of like thinking leaving all the doors to the pool unlocked, open and unguarded and letting babies crawl around unsupervised is ok because "I thought they were all blanket trained!"

 

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I mostly agree with this.

 

People have *every* right to aquire and store and use guns.

 

I'm anti "other people" - including children - in intimate adult space such as bedrooms anyway. Even during my daycare and subsequent summer/afterschool care years, other children are not allowed in my bedroom and certainly not rolling around on my bed!

 

You are not over reacting; your friend is under reacting but I disagree with your specifics. The issue isn't how YOU think other people should handle their personal firearms. The issue is that for the situation, the home and gun owners failed to respond adequately to the presence of children.

[lionfamily1999]

I

 

I mostly agree with this.

 

People have *every* right to aquire and store and use guns.

 

I'm anti "other people" - including children - in intimate adult space such as bedrooms anyway. Even during my daycare and subsequent summer/afterschool care years, other children are not allowed in my bedroom and certainly not rolling around on my bed!

 

You are not over reacting; your friend is under reacting but I disagree with your specifics. The issue isn't how YOU think other people should handle their personal firearms. The issue is that for the situation, the home and gun owners failed to respond adequately to the presence of children.

I completely agree :)

 

The bolded part, especially. I can understand where someone would not expect kids to go into their room. My room is a MESS, because it's my room, the door is closed, when nosy nancies start to open it, they're stopped immediatly.

 

All the adults in that home DID fail. The kids should not have been left to blindly follow kitties from one end of the house to the other. At the very, very least, the bedroom should have been closed and the kids should have been informed they are NOT allowed in there.