Gun Safety Follow Up
I told you about the guy having the gun safety thing at the WaPo. Well, some more:
A new study involving 201 parents and an equal number of their children has found that 39 percent of kids knew the location of their parents’ firearms, while 22 percent said they had handled the weapons, despite their parents’ assertions to the contrary. Parents who had talked to their children about gun safety were just as likely to be misinformed about their children’s actions as those who said they never had discussed the matter.
[…]
The gun safety study is the first to compare the responses of parents and their children, ages 5 to 14, who were interviewed separately.
And:
“Adolescents act impulsively, whether or not they have psychiatric problems,” Miller said, noting that studies have found that a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide and homicide, as well as accidental shootings. “It’s up to parents — not children — to provide a safe environment.”
Well, other than relying on the bogus Kellerman stat, he’s on the right track. But:
He advises parents who don’t want to part with their guns to lock unloaded weapons in a place separate from ammunition, which should also be locked. Guns should be accessible only by a key the parent carries at all times. If guns are stored in a safe with a combination, only parents should know the combination.
Personally, I can’t wait to take my kids shooting when they’re old enough. I keep my guns safely away but that’s not 100%. Instead, I’ll talk to them about them. And I will have a standing rule:
Do not touch the guns without me around. However, any time you want to go shooting, we will go.
Hopefully that will eliminate some of the curiousity.
May 31st, 2006 at 7:25 am
Your proposed method worked for me. It also worked for my parents, my brothers, my uncles and everyone else in my family that I know.
The only difference was that the only one of the above that I know of that keeps the guns locked up is one of my brothers. I am the proud owner of the gun rack/display case that my father built for his guns. I now have a couple of those guns as well as my own. I’ve never locked my guns up…I never had to.
I’m not “recommending” that guns not be locked up, just relating my perosonal experience…keeping them locked up is never a bad idea as long as it is not intended to be “out of sight, out of mind”. Let your kids believe that locking them up is to prevent them from being stolen, not to keep the kids away from them…believing that they are locked to prevent the kids access will only intrigue them and increase the curiosity factor. It should never be addressed as “you can’t touch those unless I’m around” but rather, “You can handle them any time you want…all you have to do is ask…I want to teach you if you want to learn”. You’re saying essentially the same thing, but by rephrasing it, you are not saying that they are verboten (which increases the desire and excitement of handling them) but that they are simply something that they need supervision with and training on.
I raised my kids the same way I was raised…they learned from the eariliest age that they could handle the guns any time they wanted, all they had to do was ask. I made them recite the four rules every time until I was sure they had taken them to heart.
The end result is that, by the time they reached the age that they would have been capable of loading and firing them, their curiousity had already been assuaged. There was no mystery or intrigue involved with the guns and handling them was no big deal. They both enjoy shooting to this day (daughter age 21, son age 19) and fully understand the seriousness of the responsibility.
I sincerely hope that they give the same gift of gun safety training to my grandkids and I’m confident that they will do so…locks or no locks.