Gun Ownership and Parenting
To my fellow parents and gun owners. I am a strong advocate of gun safety, especially when you have children. I have three children ages 14, 5 and 6. I recently watched a special (i think it was 60 minutes or 20/20 not sure which) where they did an experiment with a group of children with various toys and toy guns and they had a Glock in the mix (obviously unloaded). They watched how the kids reacted with the different toys and found that almost every kid (even the ones that come from homes with gun owners) picked it up pointed it at another kid and pulled the trigger.
I found this very alarming and disturbing. As a parent we all think our kids would never do that. Based on the fact that even the children that live in the household with responsible gun owners had the same reaction, I started having a conversation with my youngest children every month about what to do if they find a real gun. They always say the right thing: "get a grown up". I decided to test them tonight. I hid my wife's UNLOADED .38 revolver on my sons bed under some toys (the green hulk fist) to see how they would respond.
Tonight, I am a proud father. Both kids passed the test. Delilah picked up the gun not realizing what it was at first then put it down then they went to get me. (see the video below)
Do any of you have the same conversations with your children?
Great Post ..
With two young children in the house, our family's version of firearms safety means that all guns are stored in locked cases, with the bolts removed and locked in separate cases, and the ammo in our storage locker.
I agree and think you are taking great steps in keeping your children safe. I keep all my firearms secured and stored in locked safe's and cases as well. Unfortunately, not everyone in the world has the same standards and I prefer to make sure my children know what to do in the situation that they run across a real gun in a environment that is out of my control.
Mike this is an awesome post, I may share this elsewhere because I am a firm believer that it starts at home. And as you commented earlier here, you can only control your home so prepare them to deal with the eventuality in an unfamiliar environment.
Feel Free. I made an updated post that goes a little more into detail. https://steemit.com/life/@mikeoftulsa/responsible-gun-ownership-and-parenting feel free to share that one as well
Slightly related, this reminds me of the video where a guy asked a parent if he could try and walk off with their kid as an experiment in safety, and the parents were sure their kid wouldn't be so stupid, but they all played with his puppy and walked off with him anyway.
It's surprising how unprepared we can be without knowing it