[cdad]

Here is a news report that needs to be weighed when looking at your own situation at home when children are involved. I supprt teaching children firearm safety and when of age firearm use and proficiency at the range. Of course this has to be age appropriate and everyone has their unique situations. But all in all there are lessons to be learned from anothers story being told.

12-year-old girl shoots intruder | Fox News Video

[Fr_Chuck]

I agree, Nate when he was 9 got his first gun, a 22 rifle. He has been taught safety and would not have the uneducated interest other kids his age has.

Ok, here in China we don't have any guns, but before moving here, all guns long guns were locked in a cabinet, all shells were locked in another locker, and myself defense pistol in a special fast open safe in the bedroom

[cdad]

Ok, here in China we dont have any guns

So I guess no chance of you sending me a care package with a chinese made SKS in it huh ?

[odinn7]

My daughter learned about guns starting at age 8. We bought her a Cricket .22 and taught her to shoot it. Now at age 12, she has a Sig Mosquito. Ok, she doesn't but I do and "it's hers". Learning early takes the curiosity out of it and there is less likelihood for a child to "play" with a gun.

She has fired my AR and AK but doesn't like them too much because she claims they hurt her shoulder. I want her to be familiar with them in case she ever needs them in the future.

[dontknownuthin]

I believe in a two-part approach to gun safety with kids. First, teach them gun safey. Second, make sure they have zero access to guns and don't have any in your home when you have children present. I know many people would disagree, but some things are so dangerous, the only way to make sure kids don't hurt themselves with them is to ensure they don't have access.

[Wondergirl]

My parents taught me by example (before my teens) about the dangers of and the proper uses of both alcohol and guns. Invaluable!

[ma0641]

So I guess no chance of you sending me a care package with a chinese made SKS in it huh ?

How about a Chinese 506 armory SKS, Tapco intrafuse, 30 round duckbills. Fun, pretty acurate and cheap to shoot . Favorite rifle for North GA deer is my Savage .243 for open areas and Winchester 94, 30-30 for heavier woods. Y 'all come down -or over!

[cdad]

I believe in a two-part approach to gun safety with kids. First, teach them gun safey. Second, make sure they have zero access to guns and don't have any in your home when you have children present. I know many people would disagree, but some things are so dangerous, the only way to make sure kids don't hurt themselves with them is to ensure they don't have access.

I have to ask what you mean by not having any in your home? Are you meaning to keep them outside the home environment or just in a full size safe at home?

[dontknownuthin]

I mean I would not own guns.

If I was a hunter, I would at the very least have a gun safe in my home with absolutely zero possibility my kids could access the key or combination. Ammunition would be separately locked so that if the kids somehow outsmarted me and accessed the weapon, they couldn't get the ammunition.

I am not against hunting and am not against gun ownership generally, but when children are present in the home, I think the guns should be removed from the home until the children are grown. Another option would be a gun safe in a storage unit, and you could keep the ammunition in your home. You could still get the guns if you had a hunting trip with minimal inconvenience, but the children would never have access.

Even if your kids are teens who understand gun safety, you have to be aware that for teenagers, what happens today and this week and this month are of critical importance. They have not matured enough to understand that whatever happens in high school is just temporary and won't be that important later in life. Suicide risk is very high, and I would not want my son, even though he's never been violent or suicidal, to have access to a gun. I have seen moments when he really blew things way out of proportion and it was quite evident he did not have the big picture that adults have, and that he really thought things like a fleeting argument, or a challenging final exam, were not going to matter the next week.

[AK lawyer]

I am not against hunting and am not against gun ownership generally, but when children are present in the home, I think the guns should be removed from the home until the children are grown.

Well, you picked an appropriate name, anyway.

If someone really wants to end his life, he will find a way.

[dontknownuthin]

Well, you picked an appropriate name, anyway.

If someone really wants to end his life, he will find a way.

Well, you may think it's dumb and you don't have to agree with me. I don't know if you have kids, but I think the best we can do is use our own best judgment which is what I try to do, and I'd hope people would respect me but I suppose you don't have to. I would say that disrespect and guns aren't a very good combination though.

I wasn't raised with guns and have known several people who had guns which were used against them. One neighbor was killed with his own gun by a drug addicted son who broke into the home. I know another family in which the father killed his college age son who unexpectedly came home one weekend to surprise his parents - he surprised them so well the father thought he was an intruder and shot him from the top of the stairs. When I lived in Minnesota I worked with a man who was killed in a hunting accident. So perhaps these experiences have made me recognize the risk. I also have a close friend who is gay who has told me about a gut wrenching weekend when he took his father's gun, as a teenager, and went to the family hunting cabin with the intention of killing himself. He didn't go through it only because he kept envisioning his parents finding him. His despair was short lived but at that time he felt he would never be able to live with his reality. So, for these reasons I would not want a gun in my own home.

Then again, I don't want to deny someone else the right to a gun. I am among those who would like a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines and clips, and specialty bullets like the "cop killers" and so on. But if someone wants a hand gun for protection, or they hunt, or they want to collect relics from WWI or whatever, I just hope they will really take very serious measures to keep the guns away from kid's access and also make them as theft proof as possible.

I also know of many situations where parents locked up guns and the kids knew where they were. A six year old friend of my son's told me years ago that he knew where his daddy's guns were and could get them if he wanted, and then he told me where the bullets (shells) were. I told his mother who didn't believe me. Then she asked him and he showed her. The dad was a cop and he immediately got the firearms out of the house.

[J_9]

As Dad knows, my husband is a master gunsmith. We have guns in our home, they are not accessible though. They are all, but one, locked in several gun safes. Not simple cabinets.

My children have learned about guns since birth, literally. They have always been around them and have learned respect for the firearm. They have been shooting since the age of 5. The youngest is now 10 and the oldest is 26 and now a police officer.

One neighbor was killed with his own gun by a drug addicted son who broke into the home.

Then the gun owner was not responsible enough to have the firearms locked up properly.

I know another family in which the father killed his college age son who unexpectedly came home one weekend to surprise his parents - he surprised them so well the father thought he was an intruder and shot him from the top of the stairs.

In this case the family did not have a "plan." I work nights and frequently come home at 3 or 4 in the morning. Our "plan" is to make a phone call prior to arrival in the driveway to let someone at home know that I will be there shortly.

[dontknownuthin]

I'm glad guns are managed responsibly in your home. I wish that was the case in more homes than it is. I would have no objection to your gun ownership based on your practices. Many gun owners, though, feel that they won't be able to get fast enough access to their gun if needed, so they keep one loaded in the nightstand or dresser, for example. Too easy for kids to access, too easily for them to be stolen, or used in a moment of rage by a family member. I'm not sure of the solution. Of course this isn't a problem limited to guns - there are plenty of people who have kids who shouldn't be parents, get pets when they aren't able or willing to properly care for them, drive when they shouldn't and so on. Tough to figure out a balance between respecting the rights of the responsible and also protect society from the idiots who are not.

[J_9]

I agree. I wish all people were as responsible as we are. But, sadly, that's not the case. There is no clear cut cure to this problem. You can either take guns away from everyone, that includes responsible owners and criminals, or you can regulate them. It doesn't matter, the criminals will still get them.

Look, drugs are illegal. Does that mean that no one uses them? Of course not. When I'm not working in L&D, I'm working in the ER. There are multiple drug overdoses nightly (oh, and the politically correct diagnosis for an OD these days is Medical Misadventure). There is no easy solution other than requiring a class to be taken prior to a gun purchase.

There are Hunter Education classes available that people must undergo (at least in my state) before they are issued a hunting license. I have no problem with a firearm class to be taken, and a certificate given, prior to the purchase of a gun.

However, criminals are still going to get their guns illegally. There is no way to stop that as there is no way to stop the illegal drugs.

[cdad]

This girl deserves a nod :

13 year old shooting sensation, Katelyn Francis, interview (Pt. 1) - YouTube