2 August 2007
Teach Your Kids Gun Safety! We Don’t Need Any More “Accidents”!
Posted by Darrell under: Rantings Of An Outdoorsman .
I read a post the other day about an Illinois teen that was injured in an accidental shooting. Apparently this 16 year old was “looking at the weapon” when he cocked the hammer and it discharged.
This kind of story makes me ill. Why wasn’t this 16 year old kid trained to respect firearms? He was obviously playing with a loaded .44 handgun. He was lucky. He shot himself in the leg which was fortunate, because he could have shot himself somewhere that proved to be fatal or, even worse, hurt someone else.
Everytime there is an “accidental shooting”, the entire anti crowd descends on it. People scream for tighter gun control, no more hunting, etc. In fact, you’ll notice in the article that I mention above, they just have to mention the fact that this 16 year old purchased the .44 caliber handgun for deer hunting. Why mention this? He obviously wasn’t hunting. He was playing around with a loaded gun!
The problem is that I rarely read about a truly “accidental” shooting. If you lay down in the middle of the road and get ran over by a truck, is it an accident? I don’t think so. If you carelessly play with a firearm and shoot yourself or somebody else - guess what, it really isn’t an “accident”. Most “accidents” that I read about are the result of blatant stupidity.
As parents we are responsible for teaching our children to respect firearms. There should never be an “accident”. Firearms are a tool and have a purpose. We need to teach our children how to handle them properly and when they should be used. A hammer should never be pulled back unless you mean to shoot where the gun is pointed! Awwrrr. It makes me want to just yell.
If I caught my son playing with a firearm I’d blister his backside. Period. If my dad would have caught me playing with a firearm, I wouldn’t even have a backside. He’d have removed it for me. Of course, this would have never been an issue for my dad. Why? Because he took the time to teach me how to properly care for and respect a firearm. I’ve had my own guns since I was really young. But, even though I was just a kid when I got my first firearm, I NEVER thought of them or treated them like toys.
But, it wasn’t just my parents that taught me about showing respect for guns. EVERYONE I hunted around continually reinforced this. I was continually told “Point that muzzle down. Is your safety on? Did you unload that gun before walking into camp?” These continuous reminders helped to make me into a conscientious gun owner and has kept me safe and “accident” free for many years.
I’ll teach these same lessons to my kids, plus you can bet that I’ll be continuously reminding ANY kids that I’m around about how to properly handle a gun.
6 Comments so far...
Kristine Shreve Says:
2 August 2007 at 5:28 pm.
Every parent whether they hunt or own a gun or not should read this post. Accidents happen because kids are taught to treat guns like toys, not as something that needs to be handled with care and respect.
Jon Bryan Says:
2 August 2007 at 8:36 pm.
Accidents happen, but an accident with a gun is inexcusable! My Dad and my military instructors, hammered it into me - gun safety. I passed it on to my kids and they have passed it on to theirs.
Don Says:
4 August 2007 at 2:37 am.
Accidents will happen, guess that’s why they’re called accidents. How many of us have every had an accident? I’m not talking just guns, but with anything?
However, we can lessen the chances of an accident happening with proper gun training. Great post!
Don
Kevin Says:
4 August 2007 at 8:23 pm.
Great post Darrell, the more kids understand about guns and understand that they are not toys to be played with the less “accidents” that will happen.
Darrell Says:
15 August 2007 at 2:52 pm.
Hello Jon, Kevin, Kristine, and Arthur. Thanks for your comments about this post. ‘Accidents’ that could have been prevented really bug me. Thanks for chiming in.
Welcome Don! Thanks for stopping by my blog. BTW, I checked out your blog and it looks great. I added it to my list of top hunting and fishing sites on the Internet.
Subscribe to Full RSS 
