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Gun Facts | Gun Control and Crime

Here is an alternate view to guns, Gene. I am sure you will consider the source a bunch of gun toting rednecks who are totally wrong but not all websites agree with your point of view. I am sure you will have the last word on this issue so this is my last post on this subject.
 
You aren't answering my question. I gave you a link to an article that points to specific figures about gun ownership. You have consistently refused to answer a single line of it. You've just dismissed it with a "liberal" label. Your states don't cover most of the questions raised in the article I mentioned. You'd like that if you actually read it. At least I scanned through your link.
 
Gene Steinberg said:
And if a family keeps the guns safe from kids, will they have time to get them when someone invades their home?

What about accidents?

The “Good Guy With a Gun” Is a Myth
Click to expand...
I can't speak for other families Gene, only my own. But this is how it's worked since my kids were about 3 & 5 yrs old; They knew more about guns & gun safety then most adults. I'd come home from work, take my gun out of the holster, take the magazine out and put them on top of my dresser (it was a Beretta Nano 9mm). They'd run up to me yelling "Dad, dad! Can you give me another test please? Please can I have another test?" What they meant was; I would sit them down in my room - be dead serious with them and explain in great detail what to do if they ever stumbled across a gun in our home, another person's home, or out in public/playground. And dead serious both of them (3 & 5 yrs old) would say "I would NOT touch it (while holding their hand out in the "stop" position), I would run away from it, out of the room, out of the persons house and I would tell a grownup. I would never touch it." Then I had all kinds of scenarios like "what if you were at a friends house and the child said 'hey, look what I've got.' (and it was a gun). They would give all the appropriate answers. Then I would show them over and over with my gun (with no magazine in it) the safety rules. And show them things like "see how dad is holding the gun, but I'm not pointing it at anybody. YOU NEVER EVER EVER point it at somebody - unless you intend to use it. And the only way daddy would use it if it was to save our lives from a bad guy." I'd also say "see how dad's finger is OUTSIDE of the trigger guard. YOU NEVER EVER put your finger on the trigger - whether the gun is loaded, not loaded. Even if it's aimed at the floor, you keep your FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER and keep that index finger extended straight on the outside of the trigger guard.

Etc. etc. and this goes on and on. My kids take having a gun in the house so serious they wouldn't even want to look at it. And just say by some some random fluke they did pick it up, they don't have the strength - nor do they know the procedure of getting the magazine loaded & locked into the gun, and then racking the side to get the gun working.

I don't believe in having a gun in the home -only to have it locked up so that if there is an emergency - the emergency would be over by the time you got to it. I believe if you preemptively explain in GREAT DETAIL, regularly (not just once) about the gun and quiz them on what to do. I'd actually take my gun (magazine out of course) and place it on the floor of my room. I would take my girls (separately) into my room and say "pretend I wasn't home and you walked into the room and saw the gun laying there like that, what would you do?" And they give the exact right answer, every time.

SIDENOTE; my father is a retired detective and my grandfather used to be his boss (he was the Captain of the Detective Bureau here where I live). Both my mom and her dad (my grandfather) confirmed that when my grandfather was a patrolman/detective that he would come home from work, take off his gun belt and put it on top of the TV. My mom emphasized that she and her brother (my uncle) - that it never even entered their brain to "hey, lets go look at and play with dads gun!" - let alone aim it at each other and/or pull the trigger. And that was with zero safety lectures from their dad and/or threats. My grandfather used to take me shooting all the time when I was little (5 yrs old and up) and we had handguns and shotguns in the house. It NEVER EVER entered my brain once to even touch the gun - let alone pick it up, screw around with it, aim it at someone or myself, pull the trigger. I just inherently knew that it was a deadly weapon, and they weren't mine and that I would get the **** beat out of me if I even thought about it. It's just baffling how many kids think its ok to not only pick up the gun, but then to aim it and pull the trigger. That's hard for me to comprehend considering how it was in our household - and continues to be.
 
I have no problem with trained people being able to buy weapons with which to defend themselves or for sport. I am not that person, nor is my wife and my son. I am concerned that you can buy a deadly weapon without an ounce of training. At least with a car, you have to pass a driving test to get a license, and you can't legally drive without one. I am also concerned that some of the methods used to promote gun use are not about your safety and your defense but about companies selling you products without regard to safety considerations.

This is a discussion that has to continue. Gun violence shouldn't be accepted with a shrug. There are ways to help that are being discussed that don't involve taking away guns, or preventing sane people from owning them. Don't forget that the weapons used in San Barnardino and a number of other mass shootings were all purchased legally? Could that have been prevented in any of these cases? Even if only one person is saved as a result of tightening regulations a little, or smoothing the edges involving buying guns at gun shows or online, that would be worth the effort. Life is precious.

Did you ever wonder how other industrialized countries view the American obsession for guns?

In fact, do you ever wonder what those people think about us at all?
 
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