Bitter beat me to this one, but I thought I’d riff on the article a bit more. Its an article essentially pushing the latest Joyce foundation gimmick where parents dropping children over for play-dates to ask if there are guns in the house, and how and where they are stored. Etc. The first I ever saw of this of course was through our favorite glassy-eyed Joyce-Shill. Being pushed by Joyce, taints any valid points it may have. Joyce Foundation is a gun-ban group, with no respect for the 2nd Amendment, nor personal safety or self-defense. They’re pure evil, and this is no different.
Now as Bitter said the writer starts out by essentially quoting the NRA Eddie Eagle program, which BTW is one of the best youth safety program out there, and even if you don’t have guns, or even HATE guns, your kids should be trained in this VERY basic gun safety. More on that later.
The money quote in the article is here:
“I would say it in a self-deprecating way, ‘I’m over the top, but I just want to know if there are guns in your house,'” she suggests saying. She thinks this humble, nonjudgmental “you might think I’m crazy” approach can defuse many difficult situations.
Yeah well that IS kinda crazy. Its also EXTREMELY myopic. First up if you’re dropping such a point-blank and pointed question, obviously you don’t know me from Adam, and you’ll get the same answer I give every total stranger asking about guns and other valuable items stored in my house: “Of course not!” Now here’s something else I need to expand on.
Now of course the myopia of the whole “Ask Campaign” is pretty stupid. If you know a person so little that you need to ask a probing question about their gun ownership, what else don’t you know about these people? There are things worse than guns. Could there be a sexually or physically abusive member in the family.
Hell when I was younger there was a kid who lived near our school, and he had an older brother that had some emotional issues. I know he beat me up pretty good one afternoon which was pretty scary. Other people told me he’d pulled a knife on them and threatened to kill them. There weren’t guns in that home, but I decided that it would be best if we played at MY house.
There are of course far too many tales of sexual assault that may involve play dates, but no mention about that.
If you don’t know if the parents are the type of people who leave guns lying around, how do you know how well will they supervise your children? Will they make sure they don’t get into a swimming pool? Play with chemicals? Tools? Kitchen cutlery? Tree Climbing? Running in the house? Hell why don’t they mention inspecting that tree house in the backyard for safety?
How about drug use? What’s worse, finding a parent or sibling’s gun, or finding their Heroin kit, or some colorful pharmaceuticals in an unmarked non-child-safe bag?
The insulting part of this piece is that its just another Joyce Foundation anti-gun piece with little concern for safety.
Now back to my 2nd Point. What happens when they say “No”? Now I’m a legal gun owner, as well as a safe responsible one. I store all my non-defensive guns unloaded with the ammunition separate. I also lock them up so my investment is protected. Still I fail to see how an unloaded M1 Garand or Mosin Nagant tucked in a closet with the ammo separate has any danger to children, especially if you’re a good parent and set boundaries for playing kids. I wasn’t allowed to rummage through my parents things, and certainly I knew better than to do such things at friend’s houses.
Furthermore Massachusetts law (illegally) requires me to keep all guns locked up. Its a bad law, but I comply until its repealed.
Still children getting shot isn’t uncommon here in Massachusetts. Its not normal citizens, its seems to be cops improperly storing their duty weapon, or drug dealers who don’t follow ANY laws, so dropping a fully-loaded, unlicensed, stolen gun in a drawer, or under a pillows isn’t any more of a concern than the narcotic operation, or violent job security they also engage in.
So what if the Mommy you ask is a Mommy to a 16-year-old crack dealer living under her roof. Either she has NO idea, or she knows all she needs to know and is harboring him. First she’s a bad parent, and second, how do you think she’s going to answer your questions?
So this leads to my first point. THEN WHAT? Even if you ask all the questions in the world, there’s no telling if you’ll ever get a straight answer, and even if you make a decent effort to vet all parents, surprises happen. Maybe you know Gloria and little Bobby and Jimmy since they were in diapers…but now you might not be aware that Jimmy now goes by “Big Jim” and has taken to running with the local gang when his Mom thinks he’s out playing Basket Ball.
Unlikely? Maybe. But what if your kid’s number’s up. Teach them basic gun safety. Treat all guns as if they are loaded. DON’T TOUCH THEM! If you see one, leave the area and find an adult.
Do this even if you’re super-anti-gun hate guns, and would never let a gun in your home. You can’t ever be 100% sure your kid will never find a gun. The Anti-Gun idea is about as effective as the Reagan “Just Say No” campaign, or the abstinence Sex-Ed program. It just doesn’t take into account a worse case scenario, and actually makes children MORE susceptible to harm when life throws a curve-ball.
And of course this also illustrates the insane fixation of the antis with guns. Accidental gun death for young children is extremely rare compared to other accidents that could injure or kill kids, but guns are different…because they are different. And somehow thinking that getting a “No” from “Are there guns in the home?” question somehow makes kids safer is just foolish.
Of course telling your kids they can’t play with THOSE kids because their parents own guns for self defense DOES achieve OTHER goals.
