imported post
Aren't you getting a little tired of the politicians holding our kids as hostage?, I am. By that I mean every time a politician or a self interested group wants to sell it's argument they say " We must do it for our kids" or "Our children deserve it" or "It's for our kids future" or "We must protect the children" and other various statements similar to that. All ment to put us on a guilt trip.
The anti-gunners likewise use our children for leverage. They forget that each time you point a finger at someone else you have three pointed back at yourself. All the time they are using the safety of our kids as a reason for gun control they ignore the fact that they themselves probably have a unlocked kitchen drawer full of dangerous knives or a butcher block sitting on the counter full of the same. Any of those knives reachable by any two year old that can climb on a chair. I suppose it's another of those 'Do as I say, not as I do" situations.
In any dangerous activity safety comes with training, firearms are no different. A child that learns to use a gun correctly will not end up being a firearm statistic. Unfortunately that argument falls on the anti-gun factions deaf ears. They really aren't interested in the safety of the child. They have only one mission, get rid of guns. They will use any leverage to fullfil that mission. Even to the point of using our kids.
I still remember when I was a young child back in the 1940's . My grandpa always kept a loaded single shot 12 gauge shotgun behind the farmhouse kitchen door. My brother and I would sit for long times, wide eyed and drooling, and just staring at that old "long tom". How we would have loved to take it and fullfil our imaginations offighting off attacking indians or grizzly bears and such. We knew though, that if we so much as touched that old gun without grandpa or dad present that it would mean a trip to the wood shed, that is after we went out and cut our own willow stick to be used for our punishment.
One of the happiest days of my life was the Christmas morning I opened my present and gazed at a brand new Stevens single shot .22 rifle. I was nine years old. The first thing my dad did was show me how to handle it, how to shoot it and how to clean it. He drilled me endlessly on " a gun was invented to kill, once you kill something with a gun it is forever dead, once a bullet is fired no power on earth can bring it back". I spent many many wonderful hours in the woods of Northern Minnesota hunting with that rifle and my young indian buddy. I have never forgot those words of my dad. I in turn passed them on to my three daughters.
The road to firearm safety is paved with training. It is our responsibility as parents to protect our children by training them to do dangerous things safely. Things like playing baseball, swimming, using the power mower, handling a skinning knife, building a fire, driving a car, and , yes, handling and using a firearm. Age is not a criteria. Any two year old kid that can learn to be potty trained can learn to respect a firearm. I would trust my 12 year old grandson with a firearm before I would trust some of the "mature" hunters I see in the field.
Some of you might say "but things are different today than when you were a kid''. Things like safety, training and respect are no different today. What is different today is that parents are so caught up with making a living and their own interests that they don't take time to fullfil their training responsibilities.Instead they would rather pass that responsibility on to strangers.
"Safety comes with training, and starts at home".
