I have just finished reading an overview of a report, "PAX/Real Solutions to Gun Violence," claiming that the vast majority of parents don't have a clue about gun safety.
According to the report, 72 percent of parents with loaded guns in the home believed that their children didn't know the location of the "family gun" while 80 percent of the children actually knew exactly where the gun was hidden.
The report even urges parents to ask other parents if they have guns in their homes before letting their children go visit their friends to play. If my parents had barred me from playing at friends' homes in which guns were present, I'd have been stuck at home throughout my youth.
After reading all the gun-related gobbly-goop in this article, I am amazed that I'm still alive. How did I manage to survive childhood without getting shot while mindlessly playing with one of my dad's guns? Let me set the stage for you...
I grew up in East Texas with parents who represented a liberal's worst nightmare. They had guns. They were Baptists. They were Republicans. My dad, God rest his gentle soul, was a (gasp!) gun collector. Where did he hide his guns? In the attic? In the basement? Hidden in a warehouse? No. They were in my bedroom. Four of the rifles were on a gun rack mounted on the wall above my bed. The rest were in "the gun cabinet" across the room. And no, it wasn't locked. Do I dare detail the arsenal? In my room there were:
Two pump-action .22 rifles
One semi-automatic .22 rifle
One bolt-action .22 rifle
One lever-action 30-30 rifle
One M1 carbine
One bolt-action .303
One 12-guage shotgun
One 410-guage shotgun
One 20-guage shotgun
One antique Russian military rifle (inoperable)
Two .22 revolvers
Two .32 revolvers
One .45 service revolver
One two-shot .22 derringer
One single-shot .22 derringer
One Navy flare pistol
Two WWII era bayonets
Four hunting knives
One stiletto
Ammunition for ALL of the guns except the antique Russian rifle
And, my folks kept a loaded .38 Smith & Wesson in their bedroom.
By now, any liberal gun-hating wacko reading this is probably thinking my folks were a couple of nutballs. Nothing could be farther from the truth. My dad taught me early-on to respect firearms. Some of my fondest memories of my dad are from the days when we'd head out to the woods for a day of hunting. Sometimes we'd actually kill something. Other days we'd use a couple of .22's to assault a hapless row of tin cans and bottles. It was our time together and we had a blast (pun intended).
As I grew older, my teenage buddies and I would hit the woods at least one night per week. What?! Yes friends, a pack of sixteen year-old boys, unsupervised and heavily armed, roaming the East Texas piney woods. No raccoon was safe. Quite often we'd set up targets on my uncle's farm and just blast away. It was noisy, competitive, and a heck of lot of fun. And guess what? Not one of us ever got hurt. Not one of us ever took a gun to school and murdered our classmates. Not one of us ever held up a liquor store. How could this be possible?
In a word: PARENTING. Our parents taught us not only about gun safety but they also taught us a few things that many parents nowadays seem to have forgotten. Things like responsibility, accountability, right and wrong. Remember those?
Too many parents these days send their children to their rooms with nothing but the Internet and cable TV for company. Temptations are much more powerful in the Twenty-first Century than in the 1970's when I was a teenager. Even music is prone to violence.
If you are not a gun enthusiast, but keep a gun in your home for protection, keeping it hidden from your children is an awful mistake. Do you really think you can hide it where an inquisitive child can't find it? Children have a built-in desire to test their boundaries. I had it. You had it. Our children have it. It's a natural part of growing up. Placing the gun outside of your child's boundaries simply makes him / her more likely to have an unhealthy fascination for it. For me, the guns were as normal as the furniture, but not every family is "into" guns as a hobby or recreational activity.
If you regard your "house gun" only as a necessary evil, then for God's sake make sure your child understands the dangers of careless gun handling. When the child is old enough to handle the gun, take him to a shooting range or take him out in the country. Let him become accustomed to the feel of holding and shooting the gun. You might even find that you and your children actually enjoy the various competitive shooting sports.
A hidden, "off-limits" gun in your home is far more likely to be the one that kills a child.
Alan Burkhart is a freelance political writer, cross-country trucker, and proud citizen of the reddest of the Red States - Mississippi. You can reach him via e-mail at: alan@alanburkhart.com or by visiting his website: www.alanburkhart.com.
