Kids -its time to talk

**davilge** · 04-01-2009, 17:34

Greetings all,

I am sure many of our members have kids, most have guns (the members that is!).

In terms of SD gun - I was wondering how everyone deals with the topic with their kids. Does anyone keep their kids totally oblivious? Do others tell their kids what it is and never to touch it? (but nothing more than that). What age were your kids when you did you have the talk? What did you say?

Will be interested to see any comments on the topic.

**SSP** · 04-01-2009, 18:00

My attitude is to demystify them to the snotlings. Let them touch and hold whenever they want, under supervision and they will cease to become an enigma. Children hear and see everything. You will never be able to hide it from them.

**abhm** · 04-01-2009, 19:44

Originally Posted by SSP

My attitude is to demystify them to the snotlings. Let them touch and hold whenever they want, under supervision and they will cease to become an enigma. Children hear and see everything. You will never be able to hide it from them.

oh bloody hell here we go again, agreeing! but I do agree with SSP, it makes more sense to gunproof your child then childproof your gun

**Corné** · 04-01-2009, 20:02

As I have stated somewhere else...I do not believe in 'Childproof Your Gun' but in 'Gunproof Your Child'.

Both my kids new firearms from the point that they can remember. No I did not do and throw a loaded gun into the crib and say play. confused0068

However what I did is to let them know about firearms and thus growing up in a environment where it was normal for firearms to be around. Once they showed curiosity, they were given the opportunity to handle unloaded firearms under my supervision and (especially my son) did ask me from time to time to do this. When they reached the age of about 6 they were both allowed to shoot my 9mm with the normal stuff that I shoot. Yes, I would be behind them and managing the whole process and afterwards it would be all smiles.

Take the mystery out of it and give them the opportunity to shoot. Kids are curious and if you keep them away from your guns, you are just fueling that curiosity and should they discover a firearm somewhere else, they might just try to satisfy that curiosity with disastrous effects.

If they have the opportunity to handle and shoot guns, you have the opportunity to plant in them the respect that firearms require and they have a better change to stay away from firearms. Thus I personally have one less thing to worry about if my kid goes and play at a friend and discover a firearm.

**BigT** · 04-01-2009, 20:10

I can only agree with SSP, Corne and ABHM. This was my families approach and it seemed to work.

**davilge** · 04-01-2009, 22:38

My wife is pregnant and I was thinking about all the things you have to teach your kids etc. My mind turned to when I have a gun and that I would need to do as you have done. I don't really mean to suggest not speaking to the kids or not "gun-proofing" them.

I guess I was just thinking about how abnormal things are and how we are being forced to defend ourselves. Hence I mentioned SD guns.

I don't really want to revive a relatively established debate. Was just asking how people dealt with the situation themselves. My questions are not ideological just designed get people giving their examples.

Also perhaps get some people thinking about it themselves considering how few people deal with other important issues with their kids.

**Porramedic** · 05-01-2009, 06:20

I hear you davilge. I intend gunproofing my daughter as soon as she is old enough. The problem is that I don't know what to tell her if she asks "Daddy, why do you carry a gun?". What do you say? "To protect us from the bad people"? I don't need to scare my child into thinking the world is a bad place.

I was born in the then-Rhodesia at the height of the bush war. My mother carried one of those copy Kommando/Uzi's and my father had an FN. At the time I was just too small to really understand what was happening. I just thought it was cool that my folks carried big guns! ;D I remember being fascinated with them but my folks also had the "touch that and I'll belt you" attitude. I can assure you that if I had ever got the chance to play with them I would have.

**ikor** · 05-01-2009, 06:44

Like several here, I used the 'gunproofing my child' method on both my son and daughter and it worked well. I also like the NRA's 'Eddie Eagle' program for all younger children and personally believe it should be mandatory in schools, but the anti's would rather see kids hurt by guns (it bolsters their paranoid beliefs) than agree on a proven method of preventing gun related injuries. Another thing I have observed is that while you can, indeed, eventually depend on your own kids to be safe around firearms, few of them will be willing to enforce safety among their peers. Thus we must also address the issue of guns in the hands of others...especially other kids. My instructions were for my kids to leave if no adult was present, OR if said adult was handling the gun in an unsafe manner.

Do not fool yourself, your child knows exactly where the guns are kept as well as the ammunition, and it is at least a 50 / 50 toss up that he or she has handled a gun when you did not know about it. (Did YOU know where Dad kept the Playboys? ;D) The 'Universal Trainers' are TV and the movies!

Eddie Eagle

http://www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie/

**SWATG** · 05-01-2009, 07:54

I know where you coming from, my daughter is now 7 weeks old and beforehand you tend to ponder on how you will be teaching them different things in life, but your question made me think on how I grew up and how I was taught concerning guns, funny thing is that I did not grow up in a "gun house" i just had an immense interest on the subject, the teaching I received from my father was very simple, basically to leave them alone, I remember when I was about 12 when I saw a book in the CNA published by the Police(if memory serves me correct) about firearms the law and safe handling, well I bought it and studied it, I think I must have read it every week over and over, and I must be honest it was a very good book with plenty of pictures and very simple to understand, this installed my safety and respect for firearms, I think at that stage I must have been the most knowledgeable 12 year old in the country when it came to the law and handling of firearms, I could clearly remember that the laws on when you can shoot was far more liberal than today, from there on I just started buying any books and magazines that I could find on the subject, in those days you could only get the Magnum Magazine, but it was very good in those days, so yes basically my education was pretty much self driven, but there is no guarantee that any of our children would have the same interest so a lot might have to come from your side.

On the issue of them seeing it at a young age does not concern me too much as it is basically a lifestyle and way of income for me, so my child should understand it from a very early age, my office is at home so she will get exposure from a very early age, I guess if you take the mystery out of guns in general and make it a way of life then your children would not see it as strange or weird, just a part of everyday life, remember they grow up seeing burglar bars, alarms and security people all over the place, this normally doe not make them scared as they perceive it as a normal way of life(I am no way implying that this is normal) so yes they learn quickly and are very flexible, don't overthink it to much and just take it as it comes, you and your children would be fine, just by the notion that you where thinking about it in advance shows that you are moving in the right direction.Now if I can just teach my daughter proper recoil management we should be fine hpy71

**Geoff Carter** · 05-01-2009, 08:08

My daughter became interested at the age of 4 so one of the first things I did was sit her down with me and clean it. She watched me strip it, clean it and reassemble the weapon and she was allowed to handle any of the parts she wanted as well as the whole (empty!) gun when I was finished. In the beginning she was all big eyes but by the end of the process her comment to me was,"Yuck it sooo dirty!!" Demystification complete ;D

She then came with to the range and I explained the 4 Golden Laws of gun safety to her & introduced her to the .22LR rifle which she loves! We were having a .22 shoot and after hitting a few short range (5m) tennis balls she asks me," Dad what are those red square things out there? Can I shoot them?" (mini steel plates 25m) "Sure sweety go for it! (probably wont hit them ;D) bang tink, bang tink ..... 5/5 could have knocked me over with a feather!!! Daddy was very chuffed to say the least! happy0065

Now I just want to slowly get her into centerfire shooting & then we can start working on Mom ;)